Influence of chain ordering on the selectivity of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer membranes for permeant size and shape

The effects of lipid chain packing and permeant size and shape on permeability across lipid bilayers have been investigated in gel and liquid crystalline dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers by a combined NMR line-broadening/ dynamic light scattering method using seven short-chain monocarboxylic acids (formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, valeric acid, isovaleric acid, and trimethylacetic acid) as permeants. The experimental permeability coefficients are compared with the predictions of a bulk solubility diffusion model in which the bilayer membrane is represented as a slab of bulk hexadecane. Deviations of the observed permeability coefficients (P-m) rom the values predicted from solubility diffusion theory (P-o) lead to the determination of a correction factor, the permeability decrement f (= P-m/P-o), to account for the effects of chain ordering. The natural logarithm of f has been found to correlate linearly with the inverse of the bilayer free surface area with slopes of 25 +/- 2, 36 +/- 3, 45 +/- 8, 32 +/- 12, 33 +/- 4, 49 +/- 12, and 75 +/- 6 Angstrom(2) for formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, valeric acid, isovaleric acid, and trimethylacetic acid, respectively. The slope, which measures the sensitivity of the permeability coefficient of a given permeant to bilayer chain packing, exhibits an excellent linear correlation (r = 0.94) with the minimum cross-sectional area of the permeant and a poor correlation (r = 0.59) with molecular volume, suggesting that in the bilayer interior the permeants prefer to move with their long principal axis along the bilayer normal. Based on these studies, a permeability model combining the effects of bilayer chain packing and permeant size and shape on permeability across lipid membranes is developed.