The Physical Chemistry of Lipids

Lipids are one of the three major classes of biologically essential organic molecules. They are found in all living organisms and play a critical role in maintaining the integrity of all living things, plant and animal, because they form the barrier separating the living cell from the outside world. They are a major source of cellular energy and function in living organisms in many specific ways: as antigens, receptors, sensors, electrical insulators and biological detergents. Lipids are stored in the cells of plants and animals to be used as building blocks for membranes during growth and repair. The white matter of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves contain lipids. Lipids play a role in many diseases such as atherosclerosis, obesity, familial lipidoses and others. The food industry uses lipids not only for their nutritional value but also as emulsifiers, stabilizers, and moisturizers, which are important in processed food technology. Lipids also play an important role in industry . Lipids are used as lubricants and constituents in cosmetics and many pharmaceutical preparations.

This book is oriented toward understanding the structure, function, and behavior of lipids in biological systems. The focus is on the summarizing of the physical and chemical data for a wide variety of lipids, concentrating in particular on the changes in state and structure that occur with changes in temperature and during lipid-water and lipid-lipid interactions. A thorough understanding of the states and structures of all lipid classes provides a firm basis for understanding the more complex interactions of lipids with proteins, nucleic acids, and complex carbohydrates.

In general, the chapters would be similar to those of individual lipid classes in the previous book, i.e. introduction with relevance to biology, crystalline structure(s), changes in crystalline packing due to chemical substitution, phase behavior (including structural changes, thermodynamics and kinetics), interaction with other lipids, interaction in aqueous systems, interfacial behavior, interaction between other classes of lipids with water with particular relevance to biological systems. There will be an additional five chapters. Existing chapters would be revised and update with more recent data and general conclusions concerning all the data.