Solvent effect on phosphatidylcholine headgroup dynamics as revealed by the energetics and dynamics of two gel-state bilayer headgroup structures at subzero temperatures.

The packing and dynamics of lipid bilayers at the phosphocholine headgroup region within the temperature range of -40 to -110 degrees C have been investigated by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements of selectively deuterium-labeled H2O/dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) bilayers. Two coexisting signals with 2H NMR quadrupolar, splittings of 36.1 and 9.3 (or smaller) kHz were detected from the -CD3 of choline methyl group. These two signals have been assigned to two coexisting gel-state headgroup structures with fast rotational motion of -CD3 and -N(CD3)3 group, respectively, with a threefold symmetry. The largest quadrupolar splitting of the NMR signal detected from the -CD2 of C alpha and C beta methylene segment was found to be 115.2 kHz, which is 10% lower than its static value of 128.2 kHz. Thus, there are extensive motions of the entire choline group of gel-state phosphatidylcholine bilayers even at a subzero temperature of -110 degrees C. These results strongly support the previous suggestion (E. J. Dufourc, C. Mayer, J. Stohrer, G. Althoff, and G. Kothe, 1992, Biophys. J. 61:42-57) that 31P chemical shift tensor elements of DMPC determined under similar conditions are not the rigid static values. The free energy difference between the two gel-state headgroup structures was determined to be 26.3 +/- 0.9 kJ/mol for fully hydrated bilayers. Furthermore, two structures with similar free energy difference were also detected for "frozen" phosphorylcholine chloride solution in a control experiment, leading to the conclusion that the two structures may be governed solely by the energetics of fully hydrated phosphocholine headgroup.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)