Domain Registration in Raft-Mimicking Lipid Mixtures Studied Using Polymer-Tethered Lipid Bilayers

ABSTRACT

The degree of domain registration in a liquid-ordered/liquid-disordered phase-separating lipid mixture consisting of 1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-3-phosphocholine, egg sphingomyelin, and cholesterol (molar mixing ratio of 1:1:1) was studied using three different planar lipid bilayer architectures distinguished by their bilayer-substrate distance d using epifluorescence microscopy. The bilayer systems, which were built layer by layer using Langmuir-Blodgett/Schaefer film depositions, included a solid-supported bilayer (d ~ 15 �) and two polymer-supported bilayers with d ~ 30 � and d ~ 58 �, respectively. Complete domain registration between Langmuir-Blodgett and Schaefer …