FIGURE 7.

Increased cross-linking decreases the lipid mobility. (a) Snapshot of a coarse-grained MD simulation. The lipids are represented by small rods consisting of two beads (dark gray), whereas the sugars are represented by rectangles consisting of four beads (black). The position of the molecules is restrained to planes parallel to the light gray square. The affinity of each of the sugar beads to the lipids can be varied. A total of 1000 lipids and 500 sugar molecules were simulated in the unit cell, but only a fraction is shown. (b) Diffusion constant obtained from the coarse-grained simulation as a function of the number of high affinity beads of the sugar, relative to the lipid with weakly interacting sugar.