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Lipid Bilayer Experiments with Contact Bubble Bilayers for Patch-Clampers

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Probing Lipid Bilayers under Ionic Imbalance.

Jiaqi Lin¹, Alfredo Alexander-Katz²

¹State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, People's Republic of China; Department of Material Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Biophysical Journal

|December 8, 2016

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ionic imbalance significantly alters cell membrane properties. High imbalance causes thinning and fluidization, while extreme levels lead to pore formation, impacting cell membrane integrity.

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Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging and Force Spectroscopy of Supported Lipid Bilayers

Atomic Force Microscopy Imaging and Force Spectroscopy of Supported Lipid Bilayers

Published on: July 22, 2015

Area of Science:

Biophysics
Computational Biology
Materials Science

Background:

Biological membranes maintain a resting transmembrane potential (TMP) due to ionic imbalance, crucial for cellular function.
Cell electroporation involves high TMP, leading to membrane poration, but the ionic imbalance-TMP relationship is poorly understood.
The impact of ionic imbalance on biological membrane structure and dynamics remains largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between ionic imbalance and transmembrane potential (TMP) in dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayers.
To characterize the structural and dynamic changes in lipid bilayers under varying ionic imbalances.
To elucidate the mechanisms of membrane poration induced by ionic imbalance.

Main Methods:

Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations were employed.
Simulations were performed on a dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine bilayer system.
Ionic imbalances ranged from 0 to approximately 0.06 charges per lipid (e/Lip).

Main Results:

Transmembrane potential (TMP) exhibited three regimes: linear increase, plateau (yielding), and pore formation (poration).
The yielding regime showed bilayer thinning, water/ion accumulation, and lipid tail misalignment.
Increased ionic imbalance lowered the bilayer's fluid-to-gel phase transition temperature, increasing fluidity.

Conclusions:

High ionic imbalance significantly alters bilayer properties, inducing thinning and increased fluidity.
Ionic imbalance can lead to membrane poration, affecting cell membrane integrity.
The study reveals distinct regimes of membrane response to ionic imbalance, with implications for cell electroporation and membrane dynamics.