The effect of temperature on interacting micelles of gangliosides in water

Micellar solutions of the ganglioside GM1 are studied as a function of temperature in the concentration range 0.003-0.30 g CM-3 in water with light and x-ray scattering. In a narrow temperature range around 50-degrees-C, the micelles decrease their aggregation number from 300 to 235. The solution structuring, which is due to the electrostatic interactions among micelles, is found to be strongly affected by the micellar change. For instance, at high concentration the isotropic micellar solution at 25-degrees-C transforms into a primitive cubic phase at 60-degrees-C.