Statistical Mechanical Theory for Hydrophobic Core of Lipid Bilayer

Abstract

A partition function is proposed for the molten hydrocarbon chains in the hydrophobic region of a lipid bilayer. In the construction, constancy of the volume of the bilayer is accepted as well as constancy of the density within the hydrophobic range when increasing the arqa of the bilayer. MarEelja's method¹ for determining the inter- and intramolecular interactions was used. The distribution of the lateral pressure along the thickness of the bilayer and the elasticity modulusof the bilayer (without taking into account the electrostatic interactions between the heads) were determined. Explicite calculations were made for lipids with one and two saturatedalkyl chains with 12 carbon atoms per chain.