Skip to main content
Biophysical Journal logoLink to Biophysical Journal
. 1998 Feb;74(2 Pt 1):1007–1014. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(98)74025-1

Determination of orientational order parameters from 2H NMR spectra of magnetically partially oriented lipid bilayers.

H Schäfer 1, B Mädler 1, E Sternin 1
PMCID: PMC1302581  PMID: 9533713

Abstract

The partial orientation of multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) in high magnetic fields is known to affect the shape of 2H NMR spectra. There are numerical methods for extracting either the orientational order parameters of lipid molecules for a random distribution of domain orientations in the sample, or the distribution of orientations for a known set of spectral anisotropies. A first attempt at determining the orientational order parameters in the presence of an unknown nonrandom distribution of orientations is presented. The numerical method is based on the Tikhonov regularization algorithm. It is tested using simulated partially oriented spectra. An experimental spectrum of a phospholipid-ether mixture in water is analyzed as an example. The experimental spectrum is consistent with an ellipsoidal shape of MLVs with a ratio of semiaxes of approximately 3.4.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (100.2 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bayerl T. M., Bloom M. Physical properties of single phospholipid bilayers adsorbed to micro glass beads. A new vesicular model system studied by 2H-nuclear magnetic resonance. Biophys J. 1990 Aug;58(2):357–362. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(90)82382-1. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Lafleur M., Fine B., Sternin E., Cullis P. R., Bloom M. Smoothed orientational order profile of lipid bilayers by 2H-nuclear magnetic resonance. Biophys J. 1989 Nov;56(5):1037–1041. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(89)82749-3. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Pott T., Dufourc E. J. Action of melittin on the DPPC-cholesterol liquid-ordered phase: a solid state 2H-and 31P-NMR study. Biophys J. 1995 Mar;68(3):965–977. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(95)80272-9. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Qiu X., Mirau P. A., Pidgeon C. Magnetically induced orientation of phosphatidylcholine membranes. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1993 Apr 8;1147(1):59–72. doi: 10.1016/0005-2736(93)90316-r. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Sternin E., Fine B., Bloom M., Tilcock C. P., Wong K. F., Cullis P. R. Acyl chain orientational order in the hexagonal HII phase of phospholipid-water dispersions. Biophys J. 1988 Oct;54(4):689–694. doi: 10.1016/S0006-3495(88)83004-2. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Biophysical Journal are provided here courtesy of The Biophysical Society

RESOURCES