Flexible String Model of Unsaturated Lipid Bilayer

Abstract: An analytically solvable model of unsaturated lipid bilayer is derived by introducing finite bending angle of the unsaturated bond relative to straight part of the lipid chain considered previously in our model of semi-flexible strings. It is found that lateral pressure profile of unsaturated lipids has distinct maximum in the unsaturated bond region due to enhanced excluded volume effect caused by the bent bond, leading to an increase of entropic repulsion between the lipid chains. Simultaneously, just away from the unsaturated bond some parts of the neighbouring lipid chains have less probability to collide by geometrical reasons, causing depletion of entropic repulsion relative to saturated lipid chains case and resulting in the local minima of the lateral pressure profile surrounding the maximum at the bent unsaturated bond. Lipid chain order parameter, lateral pressure profile, and area per lipid are computed for POPC and compared with those for DPPC lipid bilayer.