Bilayers of neutral lipids bear a small but significant charge

F. Pincet (), S. Cribier and E. Perez

The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 1999, vol. 11, issue 1, 127-130

Abstract: Many experiments done on neutral lipid bilayers in pure water show weak repulsions. These weak forces prevent vesicles from adhering and are generally overcome by adding some salt in the aqueous medium. They also appear as stray repulsions in surface forces measurements made on lipid bilayers. Using a surface forces apparatus in pure water and in salt solution, we have measured the forces between two stearoyl-oleoyl-phosphatidyl-choline (SOPC) bilayers and between two dimiristoyl-phosphatidyl-ethanolamine (DMPE) bilayers. The results show that the repulsions are due to a small amount of negative charges coming from impurities in SOPC. This was quantitatively confirmed by electrophoretic measurements. There are 3 times less charges in the case of DMPE layers. The effect of these charges which is negligible at high salt concentration may significantly affect the adhesion energy and behaviour of neutral lipid bilayers between 0 and ≈ 40 salt. Copyright Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 1999

Keywords: PACS. 87.15.Kg Molecular interactions; membrane-protein interactions, 87.15.By Structure and bonding, (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1007/BF03219162

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