Specific volumes of unsaturated phosphatidylcholines in the liquid crystalline lamellar phase.

The specific volumes of seven 1,2-diacyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholines with symmetric, unbranched acyl chains containing one, four, or six cis double bonds per chain, or with a saturated sn-1 chain and one, four, or six cis double bonds in the sn-2 chain were determined by the neutral buoyancy method. Experiments were conducted in the liquid crystalline lamellar phase over the temperature range from 5 to 35 degrees C. It is demonstrated that the molecular volume of phosphatidylcholines can be well approximated as the sum of a constant volume of the polar lipid head region and the temperature-dependent volumes of hydrocarbon chain CH2, CH, and terminal CH3 groups. A linear dependence of chain segment volumes on temperature was observed. A self-consistent set of partially temperature-dependent volumes is obtained that allows prediction of phosphatidylcholine molecular volumes within very tight error margins.