The effect of the alkyl chain length of modifier molecules on membrane structure studied by the cellular-automaton method

摘要

The effect of the alkyl chain length of molecules modifying the lipid membrane has been studied by the cellular-automation method. By taking into account transgauche conformation changes of modifier and lipid alkyl chains we obtained optimum lengths of alkyl chains in a series of modifiers with different chain length so as to cause the greatest structural changes in the lipid membrane. Comparison of the obtained results with experimental results seems to favor the mechanism we propose.