The thermotropic phase behavior of cationic lipids: calorimetric, infrared spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction studies of lipid bilayer membranes composed of 1,2-di-O-myristoyl-3-N,N,N-trimethylaminopropane (DM-TAP).

The thermotropic phase behavior of lipid bilayer model membranes composed of the cationic lipid 1,2-di-O-myristoyl-3-N,N,N-trimethylaminopropane (DM-TAP) was examined by differential scanning calorimetry, infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Aqueous dispersions of this lipid exhibit a highly energetic endothermic transition at 38.4 degrees C upon heating and two exothermic transitions between 20 and 30 degrees C upon cooling. These transitions are accompanied by enthalpy changes that are considerably greater than normally observed with typical gel/liquid--crystalline phase transitions and have been assigned to interconversions between lamellar crystalline and lamellar liquid--crystalline forms of this lipid. Both infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction indicate that the lamellar crystalline phase is a highly ordered, substantially dehydrated structure in which the hydrocarbon chains are essentially immobilized in a distorted orthorhombic subcell. Upon heating to temperatures near 38.4 degrees C, this structure converts to a liquid-crystalline phase in which there is excessive swelling of the aqueous interlamellar spaces owing to charge repulsion between, and undulations of, the positively charged lipid surfaces. The polar/apolar interfaces of liquid--crystalline DM-TAP bilayers are not as well hydrated as those formed by other classes of phospho- and glycolipids. Such differences are attributed to the relatively small size of the polar headgroup and its limited capacity for interaction with moieties in the bilayer polar/apolar interface.