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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Automated Lipid Bilayer Membrane Formation Using a Polydimethylsiloxane Thin Film
Published on: July 10, 2016
A novel type of membranes based on cholesteryl phosphate
Soheila Sedaghat1, Laurent Désaubry, Stéphane Streiff
1Centre de Neurochimie, 5 rue Blaise Pascal, F-67084 Strasbourg.
Abstract:
Mixtures of the rigid amphiphile disodium cholesteryl phosphate (DCP) with the non-phosphorylated diacyl amphiphile dimyristoylglycerol (DMG) give self-organized systems in a wide range of pH, as demonstrated by differential microcalorimetry. These systems can be closed bilayer vesicles, as shown by optical microscopy (Nomarski and confocal). Neither DMG nor DCP, taken alone, give vesicles in these conditions but 10% DMG is enough to lead to the formation of vesicles from pH 5.8 to 9.3. These novel self-organized systems are akin to the classical eucaryotic ones, built on a phosphorylated diacylglycerol and free cholesterol (or analogues), the only difference being the site of the phosphate head-group.
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