title: X-ray structure determination of fully hydrated L alpha phase dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayers.
abstract: Bilayer form factors obtained from x-ray scattering data taken with high instrumental resolution are reported for multilamellar vesicles of L alpha phase lipid bilayers of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine at 50 degrees C under varying osmotic pressure. Artifacts in the magnitudes of the form factors due to liquid crystalline fluctuations have been eliminated by using modified Caillé theory. The Caillé fluctuation parameter eta 1 increases systematically with increasing lamellar D spacing and this explains why some higher order peaks are unobservable for the larger D spacings. The corrected form factors fall on one smooth continuous transform F(q); this shows that the bilayer does not change shape as D decreases from 67.2 A (fully hydrated) to 60.9 A. The distance between headgroup peaks is obtained from Fourier reconstruction of samples with four orders of diffraction and from electron density models that use 38 independent form factors. By combining these results with previous gel phase results, area AF per lipid molecule and other structural quantities are obtained for the fluid L alpha phase. Comparison with results that we derived from previous neutron diffraction data is excellent, and we conclude from diffraction studies that AF = 62.9 +/- 1.3 A2, which is in excellent agreement with a previous estimate from NMR data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA. jn12+@andrew.cmu.edu
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Nagle
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tristram-Nagle
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: H I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Petrache
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Suter
mesh_terms: D015060:1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine / Q000737:chemistry*; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D004563:Electrochemistry; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009502:Neutrons; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D014867:Water; D015060:1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine