Poly-L-lysine-induced morphology changes in mixed anionic/zwitterionic and neat zwitterionic-supported phospholipid bilayers
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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

Assembly of Cell Mimicking Supported and Suspended Lipid Bilayer Models for the Study of Molecular Interactions
Published on: August 3, 2021
Tighe A Spurlin1, Andrew A Gewirth
1Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Abstract:
Poly-L-lysine-induced morphological changes in liquid phase supported bilayers consisting of mixed anionic/zwitterionic and neat zwitterionic headgroup phospholipids were studied with atomic force microscopy and epifluorescence microscopy. Results obtained from these studies indicate that poly-L-lysine can induce domains, defects, and aggregate structures on both mixed bilayers and strictly zwitterionic bilayers. The structures formed on liquid phase supported bilayers were observed to be immobile from a timescale of 50 ms to several minutes. We propose that poly-L-lysine of sufficient length interacts with the mica substrate and phospholipids to create the stationary structures noted.
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