Biomedical subjects

Håkan Wennerström

Publications and source records attributed to Håkan Wennerström.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

How small polar molecules protect membrane systems against osmotic stress: the urea-water-phospholipid system.

We investigate how a small polar molecule, urea, can act to protect a phospholipid bilayer system against osmotic stress. Osmotic stress can be caused by a dry environment, by freezing, or by exposure to aqueous systems with high osmotic pressure due to solutes like in saline water. A large number of organisms regularly experience osmotic stress, and it is a common response to produce small polar molecules intracellularly. We have selected a ternary system of urea-water-dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) as a model to investigate the molecular mechanism behind this protective effect, in this case, of urea, and we put special emphasis on the applications of urea in skin care products. Using differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, and sorption microbalance measurements, we studied the phase behavior of lipid systems exposed to an excess of solvent of varying compositions, as well as lipid systems exposed to water at reduced relative humidities. From this, we have arrived at a rather detailed thermodynamic characterization. The basic findings are as follows: (i) In excess solvent, the thermally induced lipid phase transitions are only marginally dependent on the urea content, with the exception being that the P(beta) phase is not observed in the presence of urea. (ii) For lipid systems with limited access to solvent, the phase behavior is basically determined by the amount (volume) of solvent irrespective of the urea content. (iii) The presence of urea has the effect of retaining the liquid crystalline phase at relative humidities down to 64% (at 27 degrees C), whereas, in the absence of urea, the transition to the gel phase occurs already at a relative humidity of 94%. This demonstrates the protective effect of urea against osmotic stress. (iv) In skin care products, urea is referred to as a moisturizer, which we find slightly misleading as it replaces the water while keeping the physical properties unaltered. (v) In other systems, urea is known to weaken the hydrophobic interactions, while for the lipid system we find few signs of this loosening of the strong segregation into polar and apolar regions on addition of urea.

Calorimetry, Differential Scanning↗

PubMed2006

Effects of oil on the curvature elastic properties of nonionic surfactant films: thermodynamics of balanced microemulsions.

The free energy of nonionic balanced microemulsions based on nonionic surfactants are analyzed using experimental data from (i) phase behavior, (ii) osmotic compressibility of the balanced microemulsion structure, which is obtained from small angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments, and (iii) data on interfacial tensions obtained by T. Sottmann and R. Strey [J. Chem. Phys. 106 8606 (1997)]. The balanced microemulsion, where the spontaneous curvature vanishes at equal volumes of water and oil, has a finite swelling with the solvent with a minimum surfactant volume fraction, Phi*(S). At higher surfactant concentrations the balanced microemulsion phase having the surfactant volume fraction Phi(S1) coexists with a lamellar phase of volume fraction Phi(S2). Under the constraint of Phi(W) = Phi(O), where Phi(W) and Phi(O) are the water and oil volume fractions, respectively, the free energy density can be written as an expansion in the surfactant concentration. While the phase equilibria only depend on relative values of the expansion coefficients, absolute values can be obtained from compressibility and interfacial tension data. The osmotic compressibility of the surfactant film was measured by SANS through contrast matching water and oil. The phase behavior of nonionic surfactant-water-oil systems depends strongly on the chain length of the oil, when comparing a homologous series from octane to hexadecane using the same surfactant, here being pentaethylene oxide dodecyl ether (C(12)E(5)). The three concentrations Phi*(S), Phi(S1), and Phi(S2) increase markedly as the chain length of the oil is increased. However, from the analysis of the surface tension data it is concluded that there are no major changes in the bending rigidities as the oil is changed. The data are analyzed within the model free energy densities [formula--see text] and [formula--see text]. We find that within experimental accuracy, the first of these models provides a quantitatively consistent description of the data. For the second model there is a larger discrepancy between observed and calculated values.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2005

Fusion and fission of fluid amphiphilic bilayers.

The system water-oil (n-decane)-nonionic surfactant (C12E5) forms bilayer phases in a large concentration region, but, for a given oil-to-surfactant ratio, only in a narrow temperature range. In addition to the anisotropic lamellar phase (Lalpha) there is also, at slightly higher temperature, a sponge or L3-phase where the bilayers build up an isotropic structure extending macroscopically in three dimensions. In this phase the bilayer mid-surface has a mean curvature close to zero and a negative Euler characteristic. In this paper we study how the bilayers in the lamellar and the sponge phase respond dynamically to sudden temperature changes. The monolayer spontaneous curvature depends sensitively on temperature and a change of temperature thus provides a driving force for a change in bilayer topology. The equilibration therefore involves kinetic steps of fusion/fission of bilayers. Such dynamic processes have previously been monitored by temperature jump experiments using light scattering in the sponge phase. These experiments revealed an extraordinarily strong dependence of the relaxation time on the bilayer volume fraction phi. At phi < 0.1 the relaxation times are so slow that experiments using deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance (2H-NMR) appear feasible. We here report on the first experiments concerned with the dynamics of the macroscopic phase transition sponge-lamellae by 2H-NMR. We find that the sponge-to-lamellae transition occurs through a nucleation process followed by domain growth involving bilayer fission at domain boundaries. In contrast, the lamellae-to-sponge transformation apparently occurs through a succession of uncorrelated bilayer fusion events.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Time-resolved in situ studies of the formation of cubic mesoporous silica formed with triblock copolymers.

The mechanism of formation of two different cubic mesoporous silica materials formed with Pluronic triblock copolymers is investigated with in situ time-resolved small-angle synchrotron X-ray scattering, in situ time-resolved 1H nuclear magnetic resonance, and time-resolved transmission electron microscopy. The materials studied are the micellar cubic (Imm) SBA-16 formed with Pluronic F108 and the bicontinuous cubic (Iad) silica material formed with Pluronic P103 and NaI. The formation mechanisms of the two cubic structures are shown to be dissimilar. For the Imm material, in the early stages of the synthesis, flocs of unordered micelles are observed, but areas where the micelles have started to order are also present. With time, there is an increase in order; however, there is a coexistence of unordered micelles and ordered material all through this study. The bicontinuous cubic silica is formed via a different path. The system is phase-separated already before the addition of the silica source, which implies that a concentrated phase is present, acting as the structure director of the Iad structure. The results are compared with earlier reports on the formation of the hexagonal SBA-15 material.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Lysozyme in catanionic surfactant mixtures.

We investigate the competition between the associations of oppositely charged protein-surfactant complexes and oppositely charged surfactant complexes. In all systems examined, the most favorable complexation is the one between the two oppositely charged surfactant ions, despite the strong binding known, for example, dodecyl sulfate, DS-, to lysozyme. Thus, the phase behavior of the catanionic system is dominating the features observed also in the presence of protein. The phase behavior of the dilute protein-free dodecyltrimethylammonium chloride-sodium dodecyl sulfate-water system is presented and used as a basis for the discussion on the different solubilization mechanisms. Our results show that the mechanism for resolubilization of a protein-surfactant salt is fundamentally different when it is caused by addition of a second surfactant than when it is accomplished by an excess of the first surfactant. The competition between lysozyme and cationic amphiphiles as hosts for the anionic surfactants was studied experimentally and analyzed quantitatively. Aggregates with C12 cationic surfactants are clearly preferred by the anionic surfactants, while for C10 and particularly C8 a clear excess of cationic surfactant has to be added to completely dissolve the complex salt lysozyme-anionic surfactant.

Cations↗

PubMed2004

Mechanism of mesoporous silica formation. A time-resolved NMR and TEM study of silica-block copolymer aggregation.

The dynamics of the synthesis of a mesoporous silica material SBA-15 is followed using time-resolved in situ 1H NMR and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Block copolymer-silica particles of two-dimensional hexagonal symmetry evolve from an initially micellar solution. The synthesis was carried out with the block copolymer Pluronic P123 (EO20-PO70-EO20) at 35 degrees C and using tetramethyl orthosilicate as the silica precursor. By using TEM, we can image different stages during the evolution of the synthesis. Flocs of spherical micelles held together by the polymerizing silica are observed prior to precipitation. With time, the structure of these flocs evolves and the transition from spherical to cylindrical hexagonally packed micelles can be monitored. The signal from the methyl protons of the PO part was recorded with 1H NMR. One observes a continuous increase in the signal width but with distinct changes in the spectral characteristics occurring in narrow time intervals. The spectral changes can be attributed to structural changes of the self-assembled aggregates. The 1H NMR and TEM studies reveal the same mechanism of formation. It is concluded that the aggregation is caused by a micelle-micelle attraction induced by oligomeric/polymeric silica that adsorbs to the EO palisade layer of the micelles and has the ability to bridge to another micelle. This adsorption also favors the formation of cylindrical aggregates relative to spherical micelles. The sequence of NMR and TEM observations can then be interpreted as the following sequence of events: (i) silicate adsorption on globular micelles possibly accompanied with some aggregate growth, (ii) the association of these globular micelles into flocs, (iii) the precipitation of these flocs, and (iv) micelle-micelle coalescence generating (semi)infinite cylinders that form the two-dimensional hexagonal packing.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

Phospholipid-cholesterol bilayers under osmotic stress.

Isothermal (27 degrees C) phase behavior of dimyristoyl phosphatidyl choline-cholesterol mixtures at various osmotic pressures and cholesterol contents was investigated by means of isothermal sorption microcalorimetry and (2)H-nuclear magnetic resonance. The calorimetric method allows for simultaneous measurement of the partial molar enthalpy and the chemical potential (the osmotic pressure) of water, thus providing an almost complete thermodynamic description of the sorption process. From the experimental results, the Pi(osm) - X(chol) and the ternary composition phase diagrams are constructed. We note that there are strong similarities between the Pi(osm) - X(chol) phase diagram and the previously reported T - X(chol) phase diagram at excess water. At high cholesterol contents a single liquid ordered (L(alpha)(o)) phase is present over the whole range of water contents, implying that this phase has a remarkable stability not only at decreasing temperature but also at increasing osmotic pressure. At low cholesterol contents, the microcalorimetric experiments confirm the extraordinary property of cholesterol not to cause any substantial melting point depression. One important conclusion in the present study is that the P(beta) phase can dissolve cholesterol more readily than the L(beta) phase and that the addition of cholesterol induces the P(beta) phase. Finally, the putative P(beta) - L(alpha)(o) periodic modulated structure is discussed.

Biophysical Phenomena↗