Thermal Stability of Synthetic Lipid Bicelles Encompassed by Siloxane Surfaces as Organic–Inorganic Hybrid Nanodiscs

We examined the thermal stability of organic–inorganic hybrid bicelles, which are lipid bilayer nanodiscs encompassed by siloxane surfaces. The hybrid bicelles were formed with a binary lipid mixture consisting of a long-chain alkoxysilane lipid and a short-chain phospholipid. It was clarified that the hybrid bicelles maintained a discoid assembly in water beyond the temperature of the gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition of the face-forming long-chain lipid, at which conventional phospholipid bicelles are transformed spontaneously to vesicles.