Multicomponent phase transitions of diacylphosphatidylethanolamine dispersions.

The phase transition properties of aqueous suspensions of a series of nonhydrated (not heated above room temperature) and hydrated 1,2 diacylphosphatidylethanolamines (PE's) have been examined by high sensitivity differential scanning calorimetry at scan rates of 0.02-1.0 K min-1. At all scan rates nonhydrated PE's show a single asymmetric transition curve of excess heat capacity as a function of temperature. Multilamellar dispersions of hydrated PE's, however, exhibit transitions with fine structure, which can be fitted as the sum of three two-state component transitions, at scan rates of 0.02-0.1 K min-1, but give only a single asymmetric transition at 1.0 K min-1. At all scan rates the transition(s) of hydrated samples occur at lower temperatures than those of nonhydrated samples. One of the component transitions of hydrated PE's may be analogous to the pretransition that occurs in 1,2 diacylphosphatidylcholines.