Measuring bilayer surface energy and curvature in asymmetric droplet interface bilayers
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
For the past decade, droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) have had an increased prevalence in biomolecular and biophysical literature. However, much of the underlying physics of these platforms is poorly characterized. To further our understanding of these structures, lipid membrane tension on DIB membranes is measured by analysing the equilibrium shape of asymmetric DIBs. To this end, the morphology of DIBs is explored for the first time using confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy. The experimental results confirm that, in accordance with theory, the bilayer interface of a volume-asymmetric DIB is curved towards the smaller droplet and a lipid-asymmetric DIB is curved towards the droplet with the higher monolayer surface tension. Moreover, the DIB shape can be exploited to measure complex bilayer surface energies. In this study, the bilayer surface energy of DIBs composed of lipid mixtures of phosphatidylgylcerol (PG) and phosphatidylcholine are shown to increase linearly with PG concentrations up to 25%. The assumption that DIB bilayer area can be geometrically approximated as a spherical cap base is also tested, and it is discovered that the bilayer curvature is negligible for most practical symmetric or asymmetric DIB systems with respect to bilayer area.
Date Issued
2018-11-01
Date Acceptance
2018-10-23
Citation
Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2018, 15 (148)
ISSN
1742-5662
Publisher
Royal Society, The
Journal / Book Title
Journal of the Royal Society Interface
Volume
15
Issue
148
Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original
author and source are credited.
License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Grant Number
607466
BB/SCA/Imperial/17
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
droplet interface bilayers
surface energy
membrane asymmetry
FLIP-FLOP
DYNAMIC MORPHOLOGIES
WATER PERMEABILITY
GIANT VESICLES
TENSION
MEMBRANE
ADSORPTION
LIPIDS
PHOSPHOLIPIDS
CAPACITANCE
MD Multidisciplinary
General Science & Technology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-11-21