Analytical derivation of thermodynamic properties of bolalipid membrane

Abstract We consider a model of bilayer lipid membrane with bola-lipids. The bola-lipid is modeled by linking tails of the hydrophobic chains in the opposite monolayers within bilayer as a first approximation. A number of thermodynamical characteristics are calculated analytically and compared with the ones of a regular membrane without chains linkage. Pronounced difference between lateral pressure profiles at the layers interface for linked and regular bilayer models is found. In the linked case, the lateral pressure mid-plane peak disappears, while the free energy per chain increases. We have also calculated distribution of the orientaional order parameter of linked chains across the bilayer, and found it is in contrast with the usual lipids case.