ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses results of studies of the effects of pressure on the structure and phase behavior of lyotropic lipid mesophases, natural and model biomembrane systems as well as pressure effects on the interaction of peptides and drugs with membranes. C. Nicolini et al. used a technique that allows us to visualize morphological changes of the membrane of giant more-component unilamellar vesicles upon pressure perturbation. The interest in also using pressure as a thermodynamic and kinetic variable, along with temperature and chemical potential has been largely increasing in physico-chemical studies of biological systems. The amphiphilic properties of lipid molecules lead to self-aggregation in water solution, so that their hydrocarbon chains are pointing away from contact with water, while the hydrophilic headgroups are hydrated. Attractive contributions from hydrogen bonding, as in the case of phosphatidylethanolamines, may also be present.
