Lipids immobilizing water into droplets

/images/bp20.jpg — Organization of water droplets (white density) with overlaid lipid structure (journal cover).

/images/bp_lamellar.png — A self-assembled multi-lamellar structure (128,000 lipid molecules).

/images/bp_bubble.png — A single lamella with one enclosed water droplet.

Work by Giacomo Fiorin (Temple University) and coworkers, using coarse-grained LAMMPS simulations to show that lipids in the outer skin layer immobilize excess water into nanometer-sized droplets. All figures were rendered with VMD.

Related publications

Coexistence of lipid phases stabilizes interstitial water in the outer layer of mammalian skin, C. M. MacDermaid, K. W. Hall, R. H. DeVane, M. L. Klein, and G. Fiorin, Biophysical Journal 118, 1588-1601 (2020). doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2020.01.044