| Abstract
| - The self-assembly of biological amphiphiles has proved a fascinating topic in recent years, thehollow cylindrical lipid tubule morphology being of particular interest due to its potential applications in“soft” microtechnologies. Lateral coexistence of liquid-ordered (lo) and liquid-disordered (ld) phases, whichmay resemble raft formation in cell membranes, was investigated in lipid tubules, prepared from 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, egg-sphingomyelin, and cholesterol. Fluorescence microscopy shows thatthe appearance of micrometer-scale lo domains in the lipid tubule is not an intrinsic phase behavior of thesystem but a consequence of photoinduced lipid peroxidation. Most interestingly, new photoinduced bilayerstructures: lipid discs, essentially stable flattened liposomes, were observed for the first time in a modelmembrane system. This investigation not only aids in our understanding of lipid sorting phenomena in cellmembranes but also demonstrates how control of this process may provide a route to the generation ofnew, functional structures.
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