Temperature dependence of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine monolayer stability.

Dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine is the principal component of lung surfactant, and knowledge of its behavior as a film spread at the air-water interface is essential for understanding how lung surfactant itself works. We therefore studied the collapse rates of very low surface tension air-water monolayers of dipalmitoyl, dimyristoyl, and palmitoyl-myristoyl phosphatidylcholines at different temperatures. In each case we found that the monolayers abruptly became unstable at temperature 3-4 degree C above their bulk lipid-water phase transition temperatures (Tc). This accords with a comparable increase in Tc occurring in bulk systems subjected to high pressure. These findings are also consistent with the behavior of isolated rat lungs, which have been found to require higher transmural pressures to maintain a given volume on deflation when kept at temperature above the Tc of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine.