Lyotropic Mesomorphism in Lipid-Water Systems

Abstract

When a physical chemist looks at living matter, he sees watery bits and fatty or lipid bits and, in spite of the old saying that oil and water don't mix, there seems to be a lot of mixing and peculiar mixing at that; both lipids in water and water in lipids. Nor is this so strange because the model of lipid phase and water phase lying in contact without any interaction would seem to be a singularly useless one for the complex co-ordinated activities which we call life. Nevertheless the triglycerides are such inert lipids, which is a useful property as depot fats,¹ but one which requires pancreatic lipolysis for intestinal absorption; that is, conversion to lipids which do interact with water and aqueous bile salt solutions.