Cellular membranes consist mainly of phospholipid assembled into a stable structure called bilayer. Most systematic research has focus on one or two-component mixtures. Few studies have focused on ternary mixtures. This project investigates the spatial distribution of components in a ternary lipid mixture containing sphingomyelin using Raman spectroscopy and imaging. The proposed ternary lipid mixture contains the saturated dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC), the unsaturated dioleoyl phosphatidylcholine (DOPC) and sphingomyelin. This system is studied as a supported lipid bilayer (SLB) on a gold substrate. Raman microspectroscopy enables the identification of specific components of the SLB using marker bands. Raman analysis of a 5 μm section of the SLB has allowed spectral features corresponding to DPPC, DOPC and sphingomyelin to be identified. Sphingomyelin-rich regions were almost equally distributed on the SLB. Regions rich in DPPC and DOPC were completely separated. The concentrations of each component are estimated using intensity maps. The influence of sphingomyelin on the conformation of DOPC and DPPC is also discussed. This study provides a better understanding of lateral heterogeneity within biomembranes

Raman spectroscopy and imaging of a ternary lipid mixture containing sphingomyelin

249th National Meeting (2015)

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