The interfacial tension of the lipid membrane formed from lipid-cholesterol and lipid-lipid systems

Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF): Opening the Biotechnological Pandora’s Box

Nanosecond Pulsed Electric Field (nsPEF) is an electrostimulation technique first developed in 1995; nsPEF requires the delivery of a series of pulses of high electric fields in the order of nanoseconds into biological tissues or cells. They primary effects in cells is the formation of membrane nanopores and the activation of ionic channels, leading to an incremental increase in cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration, which triggers a signaling cascade producing a variety of effects: from apoptosis up to cell differentiation and proliferation. Further, nsPEF may affect organelles, making nsPEF a unique tool to manipulate and study cells. This technique is exploited in a broad spectrum of applications, such as: sterilization in the food industry, seed germination, anti-parasitic effects, wound healing, increased immune response, activation of neurons and myocites, cell proliferation, cellular phenotype manipulation, modulation of gene expression, and as a novel cancer treatment. This review thoroughly explores both nsPEF’s history and applications, with emphasis on the cellular effects from a biophysics perspective, highlighting the role of ionic channels as a mechanistic driver of the increase in cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration.

Plasma Membrane Integrates Biophysical and Biochemical Regulation to Trigger Immune Receptor Functions

Plasma membrane provides a biophysical and biochemical platform for immune cells to trigger signaling cascades and immune responses against attacks from foreign pathogens or tumor cells. Mounting evidence suggests that the biophysical-chemical properties of this platform, including complex compositions of lipids and cholesterols, membrane tension, and electrical potential, could cooperatively regulate the immune receptor functions. However, the molecular mechanism is still unclear because of the tremendous compositional complexity and spatio-temporal dynamics of the plasma membrane. Here, we review the recent significant progress of dynamical regulation of plasma membrane on immune receptors, including T cell receptor, B cell receptor, Fc receptor, and other important immune receptors, to proceed mechano-chemical sensing and transmembrane signal transduction. We also discuss how biophysical-chemical cues couple together to dynamically tune the receptor’s structural conformation or orientation, distribution, and organization, thereby possibly impacting their in-situ ligand binding and related signal transduction. Moreover, we propose that electrical potential could potentially induce the biophysical-chemical coupling change, such as lipid distribution and membrane tension, to inevitably regulate immune receptor activation.

The Equilibria in Lipid-Lipoic Acid Systems: Monolayers, Microelectrophoretic and Interfacial Tension Studies

In this examination, we investigated the effect of lipoic acid (LA) on the properties of biological membrane models (monolayers, bilayers, and liposomes) formed from phosphatidylcholine (PC) or phosphatidylserine (PS) using the Langmuir, microelectrophoresis, and interfacial tension methods. The Langmuir technique allowed us to calculate the π–A isotherms and determine the molecular surface areas of pure and mixed monolayers. Using mathematical equations, we established that LA and the lipids formed complexes at a 1:1 ratio. The interfacial tension method was based on Young and Laplace’s equation. We assumed the formation of a 1:1 complex in the PC–LA system. Using the mathematical relationships, we derived the parameters characterizing the resulting complex, i.e., the surface occupied by the complex and the interfacial tension and stability constant of the formed complex. The microelectrophoretic method was used to determine the dependence of the zeta potential of the lipid membranes as a function of the pH (pH 2 to 10) of the electrolyte solution. The results indicate that modification of PC or PS membranes with LA affects changes in the zeta potential and the isoelectric point values.

A new approach for investigating the response of lipid membranes to electrocompression by coupling droplet mechanics and membrane biophysics

A new method for quantifying lipid-lipid interactions within biomimetic membranes undergoing electrocompression is demonstrated by coupling droplet mechanics and membrane biophysics. The membrane properties are varied by altering the lipid packing through the introduction of cholesterol. Pendant drop tensiometry is used to measure the lipid monolayer tension at an oil-water interface. Next, two lipid-coated aqueous droplets are manipulated into contact to form a bilayer membrane at their adhered interface. The droplet geometries are captured from two angles to provide accurate measurements of both the membrane area and the contact angle between the adhered droplets. Combining the monolayer tension and contact angle measurements enables estimations of the membrane tension with respect to lipid composition. Then, the membrane is electromechanically compressed using a transmembrane voltage. Electrostatic pressure, membrane tension and the work necessary for bilayer thinning are tracked, and a model is proposed to capture the mechanics of membrane compression. The results highlight that a previously unaccounted for energetic term is produced during compression, potentially reflecting changes in the lateral membrane structure. This residual energy is eliminated in cases with cholesterol mole fractions of 0.2 and higher, suggesting that cholesterol diminishes these adjustments.

Direct in situ measurement of specific capacitance, monolayer tension, and bilayer tension in a droplet interface bilayer

Thickness and tension are important physical parameters of model cell membranes. However, traditional methods to measure these quantities require multiple experiments using separate equipment. This work introduces a new multi-step procedure for directly accessing in situ multiple physical properties of droplet interface bilayers (DIB), including specific capacitance (related to thickness), lipid monolayer tension in the Plateau-Gibbs border, and bilayer tension. The procedure employs a combination of mechanical manipulation of bilayer area followed by electrowetting of the capacitive interface to examine the sensitivities of bilayer capacitance to area and contact angle to voltage, respectively. These data allow for determining the specific capacitance of the membrane and surface tension of the lipid monolayer, which are then used to compute bilayer thickness and tension, respectively. The use of DIBs affords accurate optical imaging of the connected droplets in addition to electrical measurements of bilayer capacitance, and it allows for reversibly varying bilayer area. After validating the accuracy of the technique with diphytanoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPhPC) DIBs in hexadecane, the method is applied herein to quantify separately the effects on membrane thickness and tension caused by varying the solvent in which the DIB is formed and introducing cholesterol into the bilayer. Because the technique relies only on capacitance measurements and optical images to determine both thickness and tension, this approach is specifically well-suited for studying the effects of peptides, biomolecules, natural and synthetic nanoparticles, and other species that accumulate within membranes without altering bilayer conductance.

Relationship between wettability and lubrication characteristics of the surfaces of contacting phospholipid-based membranes

The wettability of the articular surface of cartilage depends on the condition of its surface active phospholipid overlay, which is structured as multi-bilayer. Based on a hypothesis that the surface of cartilage facilitates the almost frictionless lubrication of the joint, we examined the characteristics of this membrane surface entity in both its normal and degenerated conditions using a combination of atomic force microscopy, contact angle measurement, and friction test methods. The observations have led to the conclusions that (1) the acid-base equilibrium condition influences the lubrication effectiveness of the surface of cartilage and (2) the friction coefficient is significantly dependent on the hydrophobicity of the surface of the tissue, thereby confirming the hypothesis tested in this paper. Both wettability angle and interfacial energy were obtained for varying conditions of the cartilage surface both in its wet, dry and lipid-depleted conditions. The interfacial energy also increased with mole fraction of the lipid species reaching an asymptotic value after 0.6. Also, the friction coefficient was found to decrease to an asymptotic level as the wettability angle increased. The result reveal that the interfacial energy increased with pH till pH = 4.0, and then decreased from pH = 4.0 to reach equilibrium at pH = 7.0.

The equilibria of sphingolipid-cholesterol and sphingolipid-sphingolipid in monolayers at the air-water interface

Monolayers of sphingomyelin (SM), ceramide (Cer) and cholesterol (Ch) and binary mixtures SM–Ch, SM–Cer and Cer–Ch were investigated at the air–water interface. SM, Cer and Ch were used in the experiment. The surface tension values of pure and mixed monolayers were used to calculate π-A isotherms. Surface tension measurements were carried out at 22 °C using a Teflon trough and a Nima 9000 tensiometer. Interactions between sphingolipid and Ch as well as sphingolipid and another sphingolipid result in significant deviations from the additivity rule. An equilibrium theory to describe the behavior of monolayer components at the air–water interface was developed in order to obtain the stability constants and Gibbs free energy values of SM–Ch, SM–Cer and Cer–Ch complexes. We considered the equilibrium between the individual components and the complex and established that sphingolipid and Ch as well as sphingolipid and another sphingolipid formed highly stable 1:1 complexes.

The interfacial tension of the lipid membrane formed from lipid-amino acid systems

The interfacial tension of lipid membranes composed of phosphatidylcholine (lecithin, PC)-valine (Val), phosphatidylcholine-isoleucine (Ile), phosphatidylcholine-tyrosine (Tyr), and phosphatidylcholine-phenylalanine (Phe) has been studied. The membrane components formed 1:1 complexes. The interfacial tension measurements were used to determine the membrane surface concentration A (3)(-1), the membrane interfacial tension γ(3), and the stability constant K.

Interfacial tension of bilayer lipid membranes

Interfacial tension is an important characteristic of a biological membrane because it determines its rigidity, thus affecting its stability. It is affected by factors such as medium pH and by the presence of certain substances, for example cholesterol, other lipids, fatty acids, amines, amino acids, or proteins, incorporated in the lipid bilayer. Here, the effects of various parameters to on interfacial tension values of bilayer lipid membranes are discussed.

The mathematically derived and experimentally confirmed results presented in this paper are of importance to the interpretation of phenomena occurring in lipid bilayers. These results can lead to a better understanding of the physical properties of biological membranes. The simple interfacial tension method proposed herein may be successfully used to determine the interfacial tension values of 1:1 lipid-lipid, lipid-cholesterol, lipid-fatty acid, lipid-amine, and lipid-amino acid systems.

Interfacial tension of the lipid membrane formed from phosphatidylcholine-decanoic acid and phosphatidylcholine-decylamine systems

Interfacial tension has been determined for phosphatidylcholine (PC)–decanoic acid (DA) and PC–decylamine (DE) membranes. PC (lecithin), DA and DE were used in the experiments; the interfacial tension values of the pure components are 1.62 × 10⁻³, −2.38 × 10⁻² and −3.88 × 10⁻² N/m (hypothetical values for DA and DE), respectively. The 1:1 complexes were formed during formation of PC–DA and PC–DE membranes. The following parameters describing the complexes were determined: the surface concentrations of the lipid membranes formed from these complexes, \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$ A_{3}^{ - 1} $$\end{document}; the interfacial tensions of such membranes, γ₃; and the stability constants of these complexes, K.