The basic property of biomembranes: an explanation for the geometric progression of vesicles.
In order to explain the experimentally obtained results with biomembranes it has been assumed, that the diameter of all vesicles, defined by a lipid bilayer, form a perfect crystal. Later on it appeared that biomembranes are liquid crystals. Nevertheless already with biomembranes as crystals it was possible to calculate the diameters of all existing vesicles. As shown in the present paper, the results with liquid crystals were identical to those with a perfect crystal-model. Here I demonstrate that the geometric progression of the diameters of vesicles of biomembranes is based on the entropy of the lipids and it is shown that the diameters of biomembranes fit four geometric series. The surface areas of these series of biomembranes can be approximated by the two geometric series published previously.
Bont
Willy S
WS
Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. wsbo@hetnet.nl
D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000737:chemistry; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D013499:Surface Properties; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*
D005227:Fatty Acids; D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes