Association of lysophosphatidylcholine with fatty acids in aqueous phase to form bilayers.

Lysophospholipids have been implicated in a variety of physiological process. In vivo lysophospholipids are invariably produced with fatty acids as the product of hydrolysis by phospholipase A2 (ref. 2). Therefore, it is of considerable interest to examine the properties of the mixture of these lipids in aqueous suspensions. Results presented here demonstrate that a mixture of fatty acid and lysophosphatidylcholine forms a bilayer type of organisation even though the individual components form micelles when dispersed in an aqueous phase.