Viviane N. Ngassam

Cell attachment behavior on solid and fluid substrates exhibiting spatial patterns of physical properties

The ability to direct proliferation and growth of living cells using chemically and topologically textured surfaces is finding many niche applications, both in fundamental biophysical investigations of cell-surface attachment and in developing design principles for many tissue engineering applications. Here we address cellular adhesion behavior on solid patterns of differing wettability (a static substrate) and fluid patterns of membrane topology (a dynamic substrate). We find striking differences in the cellular adhesion characteristics of lipid mono- and bilayers, despite their essentially identical surface chemical and structural character. These differences point to the importance of subtle variations in the physical properties of the lipid mono- and bilayers (e.g., membrane tension and out-of-plane undulations). Furthermore, we find that introducing phosphatidylserine into the patterned lipidic substrates causes a loss of cell-patterning capability. Implications of this finding for the mechanism by which phosphatidylserine promotes cellular adhesion are discussed.

Liposil-supported lipid bilayers as a hybrid platform for drug delivery

We report a hybrid drug delivery system inspired by the functional compartmentalization of cell, isolating properties of cargo encapsulation, targeting, stability, biocompatibility, and permeability into discrete multilamellar organic-inorganic–organic design consisting of two differently functionalized lipid bilayers sandwiching a nanoporous silica layer.

Lithographically Defined Macroscale Modulation of Lateral Fluidity and Phase Separation Realized via Patterned Nanoporous Silica-Supported Phospholipid Bilayers

Using lithographically defined surfaces consisting of hydrophilic patterns of nanoporous and nonporous (bulk) amorphous silica, we show that fusion of small, unilamellar lipid vesicles produces a single, contiguous, fluid bilayer phase experiencing a predetermined pattern of interfacial interactions. Although long-range lateral fluidity of the bilayer, characterized by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, indicates a nominally single average diffusion constant, fluorescence microscopy-based measurements of temperature-dependent onset of fluidity reveals a locally enhanced fluidity for bilayer regions supported on nanoporous silica in the vicinity of the fluid-gel transition temperature. Furthermore, thermally quenching lipid bilayers composed of a binary lipid mixture below its apparent miscibility transition temperature induces qualitatively different lateral phase separation in each region of the supported bilayer: The nanoporous substrate produces large, microscopic domains (and domain-aggregates), whereas surface texture characterized by much smaller domains and devoid of any domain-aggregates appears on bulk glass-supported regions of the single-lipid bilayer. Interestingly, lateral distribution of the constituent molecules also reveals an enrichment of gel-phase lipids over nanoporous regions, presumably as a consequence of differential mobilities of constituent lipids across the topographic bulk/nanoporous boundary. Together, these results reveal that subtle local variations in constraints imposed at the bilayer interface, such as by spatial variations in roughness and substrate adhesion, can give rise to significant differences in macroscale biophysical properties of phospholipid bilayers even within a single, contiguous phase.

Protein receptor-independent plasma membrane remodeling by HAMLET: a tumoricidal protein-lipid complex

A central tenet of signal transduction in eukaryotic cells is that extra-cellular ligands activate specific cell surface receptors, which orchestrate downstream responses. This ‘’protein-centric” view is increasingly challenged by evidence for the involvement of specialized membrane domains in signal transduction. Here, we propose that membrane perturbation may serve as an alternative mechanism to activate a conserved cell-death program in cancer cells. This view emerges from the extraordinary manner in which HAMLET (Human Alpha-lactalbumin Made LEthal to Tumor cells) kills a wide range of tumor cells in vitro and demonstrates therapeutic efficacy and selectivity in cancer models and clinical studies. We identify a ‘’receptor independent” transformation of vesicular motifs in model membranes, which is paralleled by gross remodeling of tumor cell membranes. Furthermore, we find that HAMLET accumulates within these de novo membrane conformations and define membrane blebs as cellular compartments for direct interactions of HAMLET with essential target proteins such as the Ras family of GTPases. Finally, we demonstrate lower sensitivity of healthy cell membranes to HAMLET challenge. These features suggest that HAMLET-induced curvature-dependent membrane conformations serve as surrogate receptors for initiating signal transduction cascades, ultimately leading to cell death.

A comparison of detergent action on supported lipid monolayers and bilayers

Using spatially patterned supported lipid mono- and bilayers, we compare the effect of transleaflet dynamics on membrane solubilization by a common, non-ionic detergent in single samples. We find that at concentrations surrounding CMC, complete bilayers undergo 5–8% lateral expansion followed by rapid dissolution. In contrast, single supported monolayers remain remarkably resistant to solubilization, suggesting the central role of detergent or lipid flip-flop in driving membrane solubilization. In addition to the previously well-appreciated mode of detergent-resistance by tight lateral packing of saturated and cholesterol-rich lipids (e.g., rafts) in membrane bilayers, our results suggest that hindrance to interleaflet dynamics, such as by strong interaction with the cytoskeleton, provides an alternative mechanism by which membranes resist detergent solubilisation. Furthermore, we show that this differential resistance can be exploited to design spatial compositional patterns of lipid bilayers and monolayers.

HDL Glycoprotein Composition and Site-Specific Glycosylation Differentiates Between Clinical Groups and Affects IL-6 Secretion in Lipopolysaccharide -Stimulated Monocytes

The goal of this pilot study was to determine whether HDL glycoprotein composition affects HDL’s immunomodulatory function. HDL were purified from healthy controls (n = 13), subjects with metabolic syndrome (MetS) (n = 13), and diabetic hemodialysis (HD) patients (n = 24). Concentrations of HDL-bound serum amyloid A (SAA), lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP), apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I), apolipoprotein C-III (ApoC-III), α-1-antitrypsin (A1AT), and α-2-HS-glycoprotein (A2HSG); and the site-specific glycovariations of ApoC-III, A1AT, and A2HSG were measured. Secretion of interleukin 6 (IL-6) in lipopolysaccharide-stimulated monocytes was used as a prototypical assay of HDL’s immunomodulatory capacity. HDL from HD patients were enriched in SAA, LBP, ApoC-III, di-sialylated ApoC-III (ApoC-III2) and desialylated A2HSG. HDL that increased IL-6 secretion were enriched in ApoC-III, di-sialylated glycans at multiple A1AT glycosylation sites and desialylated A2HSG, and depleted in mono-sialylated ApoC-III (ApoC-III1). Subgroup analysis on HD patients who experienced an infectious hospitalization event within 60 days (HD+) (n = 12), vs. those with no event (HD−) (n = 12) showed that HDL from HD+ patients were enriched in SAA but had lower levels of sialylation across glycoproteins. Our results demonstrate that HDL glycoprotein composition, including the site-specific glycosylation, differentiate between clinical groups, correlate with HDL’s immunomodulatory capacity, and may be predictive of HDL’s ability to protect from infection.

Interaction of sphingomyelinase with sphingomyelin-containing supported membranes

We have studied the interaction of the enzyme sphingomyelinase with sphingomyelin-containing supported membranes using quantitative applications of real-time epifluorescence microscopy and imaging optical ellipsometry. The enzymatic action converts sphingomyelin into ceramides by cleaving the phosphodiester bond. Our results confirm previous studies establishing a gross morphological transformation of lipid bilayers involving a multi-step process consisting of lag-burst type of enzyme activation and in-plane reorganization of membrane components attributed to the formation of ceramide-enriched domains. A unique finding of our study is the evidence for the existence of an additional out-of-plane deformation following lateral reorganization resulting in membrane voids disrupting the laterally contiguous bilayer. Taken together, the in-plane and out-of-plane deformations suggest a mechanistic picture in which lateral diffusional processes of translational mobility and phase separation couple with out-of-plane interactions across the membrane leaflet to induce irreversible membrane disruption in response to SMase action. Remarkably, lipid monolayers supported on hydrophobic substrates exhibit no such large-scale deformation despite ceramide generation by enzymatic activity of sphingomyelinase, possibly suggesting the importance of coupling across membrane leaflets in inducing out-of-plane deformations.

Optical Control of Cell Death: Translation of a Temporal Process to a Spatial Display

The ability to arrest a dynamic physiological process and display the progression as a sequence of events has proved successful for the imaging of transport through transmembrane channels under cryogenic conditions. If cellular processes that advance in response to insult could be similarly arrested and displayed, it would open the door to investigation of biophysical and biochemical questions that are currently difficult to address. We have developed such a spatial cellular array, which might be utilized to study a broad spectrum of stress-induced physiological processes. As an illustration, we show that the process of optically induced cellular apoptosis can be translated from the temporal progression to a spatial array. Following graded doses of short-wavelength ultraviolet radiation, cells presented to a surface undergo progressively more advanced stages of the apoptotic cascade, depending upon their position in the array, as measured by caspase-8 and caspase-3 activation. This broadly applicable tool, exemplified here by the display of optically induced apoptosis, could facilitate the study of a wide range of optically and oxidatively stiumulated processes.