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DPPC is a variant of phosphatidylcholine. Its structure includes both a hydrophilic "head" and hydrophobic "tails", and it is this arrangement that makes it able to reduce the surface tension of the water layer. The choline radical constitutes the polar hydrophilic head; it is oriented towards and extends into the alveolar liquid.
Phospholipids [1] are a class of lipids whose molecule has a hydrophilic "head" containing a phosphate group and two hydrophobic "tails" derived from fatty acids, joined by an alcohol residue (usually a glycerol molecule). Marine phospholipids typically have omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA integrated as part of the phospholipid molecule. [2]
Surfactant molecules have either one tail or two; those with two tails are said to be double-chained. [4] Surfactant classification according to the composition of their head: non-ionic, anionic, cationic, amphoteric. Most commonly, surfactants are classified according to polar head group. A non-ionic surfactant has no charged groups in its ...
PI exhibits an amphiphilic nature, with both polar and non-polar regions, due to its glycerophospholipid structure containing a glycerol backbone, two non-polar fatty acid tails, and a phosphate group substituted with an inositol polar head group.
In an aqueous system, the polar heads of lipids align towards the polar, aqueous environment, while the hydrophobic tails minimize their contact with water and tend to cluster together, forming a vesicle; depending on the concentration of the lipid, this biophysical interaction may result in the formation of micelles, liposomes, or lipid bilayers.
Phospholipids with certain head groups can alter the surface chemistry of a bilayer and can, for example, serve as signals as well as "anchors" for other molecules in the membranes of cells. [3] Just like the heads, the tails of lipids can also affect membrane properties, for instance by determining the phase of the bilayer.
This page was last edited on 16 June 2011, at 04:08 (UTC).; Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may ...
Above the critical micelle concentration, the anions organize into a micelle, in which they form a sphere with the polar, hydrophilic heads of the sulfate portion on the outside (surface) of the sphere and the nonpolar, hydrophobic tails pointing inwards towards the center. The water molecules around the micelle in turn arrange themselves ...