Effect of Substrate Roughness on D Spacing Supports Theoretical Resolution of Vapor Pressur.pdfVIP

Biophysical Journal Volume 74 March 1998 1421–1427 1421 Effect of Substrate Roughness on D Spacing Supports Theoretical Resolution of Vapor Pressure Paradox Stephanie Tristram-Nagle,* Horia I. Petrache,# Robert M. Suter,# and John F. Nagle*# *Department of Biological Sciences and #Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 USA ABSTRACT The lamellar D spacing has been measured for oriented stacks of lecithin bilayers prepared on a variety of solid substrates and hydrated from the vapor. We find that, when the bilayers are in the L phase near 100% relative humidity, the D spacing is consistently larger when the substrate is rougher than when it is smooth. The differences become smaller as the relative humidity is decreased to 80% and negligible differences are seen in the L phase. Our interpretation is that rough substrates frustrate the bilayer stack energetically, thereby increasing the fluctuations, the fluctuational repulsive forces, and the water spacing compared with stacks on smooth surfaces. This interpretation is consistent with and provides experimental support for a recently proposed theoretical resolution of the vapor pressure paradox. INTRODUCTION According to elementary thermodynamics the properties of forces that compete against the attractive van der Waals macromolecular or multimolecular assemblies immersed in forces. This distinction between gel and fluid phases hy- water (fully hydrated) should be no different than when in drated in bulk water has a counterpart for lipid bilayers saturated water vapor, i.e., 100% relative humidity (RH), hydrated from the vapor. For the gel phase, Tristram-Nagle because the chemical potential of water is the same in both et al. (1993) studied