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Updated: Jul 20, 2026

Single Molecule Methods for Monitoring Changes in Bilayer Elastic Properties
Published on: November 3, 2008
Reply to the 'Comment on "Bilayer aggregate microstructure determines viscoelasticity of lung surfactant
Clara O Ciutara1, Joseph A Zasadzinski1
1Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. zasad008@umn.edu.
Abstract:
In their comment, Berret suggests that Curosurf, one of three clinical lung surfactant aqueous suspensions examined in the Soft Matter, 2021, 17, 5170-51820 is a Newtonian liquid rather than a shear-thinning soft solid with a small, but measurable yield stress. We postulate that these discrepancies may be due to the size of the magnetic wire measurement probe used in their paper (Thai et al., Colloids Surf., B, 2019, 178, 337-345) the diameter of which is similar in size to the Curosurf bilayer agregates (1-10 μm). The cone and plate rheometer used by Ciutara and Zasadzinski measures averaged effects over the entire macroscopic sample. Our combined results point out that the local viscoelastic properties of a moderately dense suspension may be different than its bulk properties.
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