Comparative FTIR spectroscopic study upon the hydration of lecithins and cephalins

Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy has been used to study the gradual hydration of films prepared from some ubiquitous phospholipids. The diacyl lecithins (PCs, DPPC and DOPC) and cephalins (PEs, DPPE and DOPE) are representative for compounds with saturated (palmitoyl) and unsaturated (oleoyl) hydrocarbon chains, respectively. The adsorption isotherms obtained spectroscopically reveal that lecithins take up more water than cephalins, independently of the nature of their acyl chains. Furthermore, whereas the two lecithins exhibit more or less substantial and continuous wavenumber shifts for the well-assigned infrared absorption bands arising from the Vibrations of their polar parts, the cephalins show a significantly diverse pattern with characteristic differences determined by the chemical nature of their tails. DPPE is, as far as reflected by its IR-band parameters, completely invariant against hydration, i.e. no influence of the water imbibed by the film is visible. Such a finding can be interpreted in terms of a tight hydrogen-bonding network formed between the phosphate and ammonium groups of DPPE, This explanation is confirmed by the results of relevant quantum-chemical AM1 calculations another part of which is also suitable to rationalize the wavenumber downwards shifts of the PO2- and C=O stretching-vibration bands of lecithins observed upon hydration. DOPE differs from DPPE by undergoing rather dramatic hydration-induced wavenumber shifts of the IR bands due to its polar parts. Contrarily to the lecithins, however, these displacements are restricted to a very narrow range of water activities. This behaviour suggests the existence of a lyotropic phase transition ascribed to a conversion from H-II to P-alpha occurring when the water content of DOPE is decreased. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.