Study on Phase Transitions of Phospholipid Bilayer Membranes under High Pressure

Abstract

We have begun to study phase transitions of phospholipid bilayer membranes under high pressure from the most representative model-membrane phospholipid, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), early in the 1990s and accumulated many bilayer phase diagrams of various kinds of phospholipids depending on pressure and temperature until now. In this review, the comprehensive study on the phospholipid bilayer membranes under high pressure based on the temperature and pressure phase diagrams is described and the correlation among thermodynamic variables, lipid molecular structures and membrane states is explained.