Formation of planar unilamellar phospholipid membranes on oxidized gold substrate

Supported planar phospholipid membranes are used in a range of biophysical measurements, typically for characterizing protein-membrane interactions. Liposome deposition is the most common method to create such membranes. The ability of liposomes to fuse into a lamellar membrane during deposition is strongly dependent on the surface chemistry; some important substrate materials such as oxidized gold do not promote liposome fusion. Circumventing this determinism poses an enduring challenge to membrane biophysics. Here, the authors show that the effect of surface chemistry can be overcome by using osmotic stress. Reproducible single bilayer coverage was achieved on oxidized gold surface from liposomes of a variety of lipid compositions, as demonstrated by quartz crystal microbalance measurements and confirmed via fluorescence microscopy imaging. The continuity of the deposit was confirmed by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. Using mixtures of di-myristoyl and di-palmitoyl lipids, it was also demonstrated that the formation of fused lamellar membranes upon osmotic stress is a sensitive function of the thermodynamic phase of the membrane.