Sucrose solutions as prospective medium to study the vesicle structure: SAXS and SANS study

The possibility of using sucrose solutions as mediums for X-ray and neutron small-angle scattering experiments has been explored for dimyristoylphosph atidylcholine (DMPC) vesicles and mixed DMPC/C12E8 aggregates. The influenc e of sucrose concentration on phospholipid vesicles size and polydispersity has been investigated by complimentary X-ray and neutron scattering. Sucro se solutions decreased the vesicle size and polydispersity and increased a contrast between the phospholipid membrane and the bulk solvent sufficientl y for X-rays. Subsequently. 40% sucrose in H2O increased X-ray contrast by up to 10 times compared to pure H2O. The range of sucrose concentration fro m 30 to 40% created the best experimental conditions for the X-ray small-an gle experiment with phospholipid vesicles. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.