Structure of polymerizable lipid bilayers: water profile of a diacetylenic lipid bilayer using elastic neutron scattering.

Elastic neutron scattering experiments have been used to study the hydration of multibilayers of 1,2-bis(10,12-tricosadiynoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DC8,9PC). Previously published FTIR spectroscopic data had suggested, based on shifts in the carbonyl (C = O) stretch frequencies, that the phosphocholine headgroup in these polymerizable lipid bilayers was much less hydrated than that of saturated phosphatidylcholines. Our results demonstrate that the DC8,9PC headgroup is at least as well hydrated as that of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), a saturated lipid, under the same conditions.