Observation of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine domains at different temperatures by epifluorescence microscopy

Abstract EN

Phospholipids monolayers at the air-water interface display coexisting phases when they are laterally compressed.

Those phases can be monitored by isotherm and visualization techniques.

We present DPPC isotherms at temperatures ranging from 14 ºC up to 42 ºC.

Moreover domains of the coexisting phases are observed by epifluorescence microscopy.

We developed a technique in order to visualize DPPC domains at LE-LC coexistence region at higher temperatures than room temperature.

We report visualization of DPPC domains at different temperatures in the range from 18 ºC to 35 ºC.

Domains are quantitatively analyzed at these temperatures.

The distributions of the domain sizes for different temperatures are reported.

A correlation between the average sizes of the domain and the temperatures demonstrates that domain size becomes very small as approaching the melting chain temperature.