Biophys J, September 2002, p. 1489-1500, Vol. 83, No. 3

Lateral Diffusion in Substrate-Supported Lipid Monolayers as a Function of Ambient Relative Humidity

Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research, D-55128 Mainz, Germany

We analyzed the influence of water activity on the lateral self-diffusion of supported phospholipid monolayers. Lipid monolayer membranes were supported by polysaccharide cushions (chitosan and agarose), or glass. A simple diffusion model was derived, based on activated diffusion with an activation energy, E_a, which depends on the hydration state of the lipid headgroup. A crucial assumption of the derived model is that E_a can be calculated assuming an exponential decay of the humidity-dependent disjoining pressure in the monolayer/substrate interface with respect to the equilibrium separation distance. A plot of ln(D) against ln(p₀/p), where D is the measured diffusion coefficient and p₀ and p are the partial water pressures at saturation and at a particular relative humidity, respectively, was observed to be linear in all cases (i.e., for differing lipids, lateral monolayer pressures, temperatures, and substrates), in accordance with the above-mentioned diffusion model. No indications for humidity-induced first-order phase transitions in the supported phospholipid monolayers were found. Many biological processes such as vesicle fusion and recognition processes involve dehydration/hydration cycles, and it can be expected that the water activity significantly affects the kinetics of these processes in a manner similar to that examined in the present work.

Biophys J, September 2002, p. 1489-1500, Vol. 83, No. 3
© 2002 by the Biophysical Society   0006-3495/02/09/1489/12  $2.00