Lateral diffusion in synthetic membranes: models and experiments on protein influence

Abstract

Diffusion-influenced theories of the Smoluchowsky type are applied to the case of synthetic membranes in which a fluorescent probe (pyrene) is included. These models make the assumption of a pseudo-two-dimensional medium with some refinements such as the curvature of space or the thickness of the membrane. After having shown that it is possible to measure a diffusion coefficient inside the membranes with photophysical methods and to characterize the effects of the temperature and of the length of the carbon chains on the lateral diffusion, some proteins are added to the membranes in order to observe their influence on the lateral molecular transport.