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Updated: Jan 20, 2026
Lipid Bilayer Experiments with Contact Bubble Bilayers for Patch-Clampers
Published on: January 16, 2019
Surface Shear Viscosity and Interleaflet Friction from Nonequilibrium Simulations of Lipid Bilayers
Andrew Zgorski, Richard W Pastor1, Edward Lyman
1Laboratory of Computational Biology, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute , National Institutes of Health , Bethesda , Maryland 20892 , United States.
Abstract:
Nonequilibrium simulation protocols based on shear deformations are applied to determine the surface viscosity and interleaflet friction of lipid bilayers. At high shear rates, a non-Newtonian shear thinning regime is observed, but lower shear rates yield a Newtonian plateau and results that are consistent with equilibrium measurements based on fluctuation-dissipation theorems. Application to all-atom bilayers modeled with the CHARMM36 parameter set yields values for the surface viscosity that are consistent with microscopic measurements based on membrane protein diffusion but are approximately 10 times lower than more macroscopic experimental measurements. The interleaflet friction is about 10 times lower than experimental measurements. Trends across different lipids, temperatures, and ternary liquid-disordered phase mixtures produce results that are consistent with experimental diffusion constants. Application of the protocol to the liquid-ordered phase fails to yield a Newtonian plateau, suggesting more complex rheology.
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