Issue 29, 2019

Bending rigidity of charged lipid bilayer membranes

Abstract

We experimentally investigate the effect of lipid charge on the stiffness of bilayer membranes. The bending rigidity of membranes with composition 0–100 mol% of charged lipids, in the absence and presence of salt at different concentrations, is measured with the flicker spectroscopy method, using the shape fluctuations of giant unilamellar vesicles. The analysis considers both the mean squared amplitudes and the time autocorrelations of the shape modes. Our results show that membrane charge increases the bending rigidity relative to the charge-free membrane. The effect is diminished by the addition of monovalent salt to the suspending solutions. The trend shown by the membrane bending rigidity correlates with zeta potential measurements, confirming charge screening at different salt concentrations. The experimental results in the presence of salt are in good agreement with existing theories of membrane stiffening by surface charge.

Graphical abstract: Bending rigidity of charged lipid bilayer membranes

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Apr 2019
Accepted
28 Jun 2019
First published
11 Jul 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Soft Matter, 2019,15, 6006-6013

Bending rigidity of charged lipid bilayer membranes

H. A. Faizi, S. L. Frey, J. Steinkühler, R. Dimova and P. M. Vlahovska, Soft Matter, 2019, 15, 6006 DOI: 10.1039/C9SM00772E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements