Damage to the DPPC Membrane Induced by Shock Waves: Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Shock waves have shown a promising application in biomedical membranes. What needs to be noticed is that a shock wave will cause damage to human tissues when it is too strong. The damage to dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine membranes induced by shock waves was studied by adopting all-atom molecular dynamics. It was found that as the impulse increased, the membrane became increasingly disordered and the folds became more severe with more water molecules in the hydrophobic area. The membrane impact process was divided into three stages, namely, the shock stage, recovery stage, and aftereffect stage. It was observed that the membrane damage was recoverable during the impact when the impulse was less than 127 mPa s, but no membrane damage recovery was observed when the impulse was greater than 153 mPa s. Furthermore, with the impulse increasing, the maximum strain of the membrane also increased, which was linear with the impulse. Moreover, when the impulse was 153 mPa s, the maximum strain of the membrane turned to 0.34. After the shock simulations, the recovery simulations continued for a few nanoseconds, and it was found that all of the membranes recovered.