Sucrose solutions as prospective medium to study the vesicle structure: SAXS and SANS study

The possibility of using sucrose solutions as mediums for X-ray and neutron small-angle scattering experiments has been explored for dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) vesicles and mixed DMPC/C12E8 aggregates. The influence of sucrose concentration on phospholipid vesicles size and polydispersity has been investigated by complimentary X-ray and neutron scattering. Sucrose solutions decreased the vesicle size and polydispersity and increased a contrast between the phospholipid membrane and the bulk solvent sufficiently for X-rays. Subsequently, 40% sucrose in H2O increased X-ray contrast by up to 10 times compared to pure H2O. The range of sucrose concentration from 30 to 40% created the best experimental conditions for the X-ray small-angle experiment with phospholipid vesicles.