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Updated: Jun 2, 2026
Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging and Force Spectroscopy of Supported Lipid Bilayers
Published on: July 22, 2015
Atomic force microscopy study of ganglioside GM1 concentration effect on lateral phase separation of
1The Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Ministry of Education, Department of Macromolecular Science, the Centre of Analysis and Measurement, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, PR China.
Abstract:
The effect of monosialoganglioside GM1 (GM1) concentration on the lateral phase separation in the sphingomyelin/1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine/cholesterol (SM/DOPC/Chol) bilayers was studied by using atomic force microscopy. The results show that, with the increase of GM1 mol fraction (x), the dominant composition of liquid-ordered (L(o)) domains changes from SM to SM/GM1 and finally to GM1. Meanwhile, the decrease of domain area (A) of the L(o) phase with the increase of x follows a scaling law of A ∼ x(-3/2), for x > 0.005, indicating that the domain growth is pinned with high GM1 concentration. Results of in situ experiments of GM1 insertion into SM/DOPC/cholesterol bilayers further supported our observations.
