Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Lipid membrane phase behaviour elucidated in real time by controlled environment atomic force microscopy.

Fuyuki Tokumasu1, Albert J Jin, James A Dvorak

  • 1Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, ORS/OD, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-0425, USA.

Journal of Electron Microscopy
|May 11, 2002
PubMed
Summary

We visualized lipid phase transitions in 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC) membranes using atomic force microscopy. This revealed nanodomains crucial for biological membrane functions.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Corrigendum to "Enhanced fluorescence imaging guided photodynamic therapy of sinoporphyrin sodium loaded graphene oxide" [Biomaterials 42 (2015) 16442].

Biomaterials·2026
Same author

Nanoscopy Reveals Heparan Sulfate Clusters as Docking Sites for SARS-CoV-2 Attachment and Entry.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025
Same author

Pivotal roles of Plasmodium falciparum lysophospholipid acyltransferase 1 in cell cycle progression and cytostome internalization.

Communications biology·2025
Same author

Hyperspectral analysis to assess gametocytogenesis stage progression in malaria-infected human erythrocytes.

Journal of biomedical optics·2025
Same author

A Type I Photosensitizer-Polymersome Boosts Reactive Oxygen Species Generation by Forcing H-Aggregation for Amplifying STING Immunotherapy.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2024
Same author

Discovery of antimalarial drugs from secondary metabolites in actinomycetes culture library.

Tropical medicine and health·2024

Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Materials Science
  • Cell Biology

Background:

  • Lipids are essential for biological membrane structure and function.
  • Understanding lipid physical and chemical properties is key to membrane biology.
  • Atomic force microscopy (AFM) offers high-resolution surface imaging.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To visualize real-time lipid phase transitions and domain separation in DMPC membranes.
  • To estimate the thermodynamics of the lipid phase transition process.
  • To characterize the size and organization of lipid nanodomains.

Main Methods:

  • Development of a novel atomic force microscopy (AFM) approach.
  • Real-time visualization of temperature-induced phase transitions in DMPC membranes.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Mathematical modeling of AFM-derived membrane height data using multi-peak Gaussian distributions.

    • Main Results:

    • Observed coexistence of gel and liquid crystalline phases in DMPC over a ~10°C range.
    • Determined a transition temperature (Tm) of 28.5°C for equal phase partitioning.
    • Estimated DMPC nanodomain size as 18-75 molecules per leaflet (~4.2 nm diameter).

    Conclusions:

    • AFM provides a powerful tool for studying lipid phase behavior and thermodynamics.
    • Lipid nanodomains are quantifiable and may self-organize into larger structures.
    • These nanodomains play dynamic roles in biologically important membrane processes.