Hydration pressure and phase transitions of phospholipids. II. Thermotropic approach.

It is widely known that dehydration increases the main phase transition temperature of phospholipids. A mathematical analysis now shows that hydration pressure can be calculated by the dehydration-induced shift of the phase transition temperature. The hydration-dependent piezotropic and thermotropic phase transitions were determined by using calorimetry and FT-IR spectroscopy, and the application of our approach gives hydration pressure parameters that agree very well with the values obtained with the osmotic stress method.