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Electrical oscillation and fluctuation in phospholipid membranes. Phospholipids can form a channel without protein
K Yoshikawa1, T Fujimoto, T Shimooka
1College of General Education, University of Tokushima, Japan.
Biophysical Chemistry
|April 1, 1988
Abstract:
Fluctuations and/or step-wise changes in membrane potential and electrical current were observed in bilayer membranes of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) in the absence of any channel protein. The DOPC membranes consisted of three types: black lipid membranes, pipette-clamp membranes and lipid membranes transferred to porous filter paper by conventional Langmuir-Blodgett techniques. This finding is significant since phospholipids are the main constituents of biomembranes. Lipid molecules with a cis double bond in their carbon skeleton are suggested to be important in the gating or excitation of biomembranes.