Internal structural change of ganglioside micelle depending on temperature observed by neutron solvent contrast variation

Abstract By using solvent contrast variation method of small-angle neutron scattering, we have studied the thermal structural transition of glycosphingolipid micelle (0.5% w/v monosialogangliosides in 50 mM Hepes buffer at pH 7). The present results clearly indicate that the thermal structural transition accompanies a change of the intermicellar scattering density distribution, which results from the dehydration of the polar head (oligosaccharide chain with acidic sugar) region of the micelle. The present experimental evidences strongly support our previous results obtained by using small-angle X-ray scattering and shell-modeling methods.