Yu. A. Ermakov

Electrical resistivity of the liquid phase of vesicular suspensions prepared by different methods

Giant lipid vesicles are obtained mainly by two methods of formation: (i) electroformation and (ii) gentle hydration (spontaneous swelling). Very often the electoformation is carried out in experimental cells consisting of indium-tin oxide (ITO) coated plates as electrodes and various polymer spacers. In the present work, the influence of the ITO coatings and the polymer spacers on the electrical resistivity of the liquid medium of electroformed vesicle suspensions is examined by means of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Our study is intended to point out possible implications of the electroformation method, especially in cases when phenomena, related to electric properties of the vesicle membranes, are investigated.

Molecular-dynamic simulation of phospholipid bilayers: Ion distribution at the surface of neutral and charged bilayer in the liquid crystalline state

The electric field and ion distribution at the surface of neutral and charged lipid bilayers (BeCl2 and dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine/dipalmitoyl phosphatidylserine (DPPC/DPPS) + KCl) were studied with molecular dynamic (MD) methods. It is shown that the contributions of lipid molecules, water and ions to the electric potential compensate each other in the region of the diffuse double layer and decrease the potential value close to zero. It is also demonstrated that the ion distribution at the charged surface is determined not only by the electrostatic ion-medium interaction. The total energy of this interaction was compared with the potential of mean ion force. It was shown that cations and anions have a different effect on the state of water molecules at the surface. The order parameter of water in the system DPPC + BeCl2 and the Clion distribution have the extremum at the distance of 10 α atoms of the phospholipid glycerol. This position was chosen as the “electrical” interface of the electrical double layer (EDL) for all lipid systems studied. The potential of mean force of counter ions in EDL allows us to obtain the value of potential at the lipid surface suitable for experimental test of the MD data. This surface potential and surface charge density was found from MD simulation different electrolyte concentrations and DPPS content of 20, 40 and 60% in the mixture with DPPC and was shown to be in a good agreement with the Gouy-Chapman-Stern model upon fitting parameters close to their experimental values.

Chapter 11 Elasticity and Electrostatics of Amphiphilic Layers: Current State of the Theory and the Experiment

Abstract A critical review is made of the existing theoretical approaches for determination of the relationship between the electrostatic interactions and the mechanical properties of charged membranes composed of amphiphilic molecules (lipids, detergents, etc). Special attention is paid to the Gouy–Chapman theory of the electric double layer and its application for the calculation of the electrostatic corrections to the moduli of membrane elasticity. Some experimental data on the elasticity, tension, surface pressure, and lateral condensation of charged lipid bilayers and monolayers are compared with the theoretical predictions.

Electrostatic effects upon adsorption and desorption of polylysines on the surface of lipid membranes of different composition

Electrokinetic measurements are carried out in suspensions of liposomes made from mixtures of charged (cardiolipin, CL) and neutral (phosphatidylcholine, PC) lipids in the presence of lysine and lysine-based polypeptides. Neither monolysine nor polylysines adsorbed on neutral (PC) membranes. In the case of negatively charged membranes (CL/PC) all polypeptides showed a sharp dependence of liposome electrophoretic mobility on the amount of polymer added to the cell. In suspension of cardiolipin liposomes the position of zero charge point coincided for all high-molecular polylysines; thus, pentalysine neutralizes the membrane surface, whereas polycations with a higher polymerization degree change a sign of the surface charge. Electrophoretic mobility of liposomes in plateau range depended on the molecular weight of polylysines and composition of liposomes; for large macromolecules the absolute value came close to its value for the initial liposomes. Adsorption of polycations on planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) resulted in alteration of the boundary potential measured by the method of intramembranous field compensation (IFC). The electrokinetic measurements and IFC method gave close results in the case of lysine monomers; their surface concentration could be fitted by an isotherm of the molecule distribution between the membrane surface and solution. Considerable differences of the surface and boundary potentials found in the case of pentalysine, correspond to changes in the dipole component of boundary potential induced by the adsorbed molecules. Using the IFC method, the kinetics of the adsorption process before saturation was studied. The adsorption of polylysines was markedly slower (more than hour) than that of pentalysine (tens of min) or monolysine (minutes). Washout experiments showed that adsorption of penta-and monolysine on planar BLM was reversible, while that of high-molecular polylysines was practically irreversible.

Experimental study of the bending elasticity of charged lipid bilayers in aqueous solutions with pH5

Exposure to high concentrations of contaminations due to air polluting gases, vapours and aerosols and possibly altering the normal pH in the body could lead to undesirable changes in the properties of biological cells. Here, we study experimentally the mechanical properties of synthetic phospholipid bilayers containing increasing molar fractions (up to 0.15) of charged lipid (synthetic phosphatidylserine) in aqueous solutions with controlled ionic strength and at pH 5, which is slightly lower than the physiological values of pH. Our observations in phase contrast and fluorescence testified to the coexistence of two phases in membranes for temperatures below 29°C. Micro-sized inhomogeneities in vesicle membranes were systematically observed at temperatures lower than 29°C and for molar fractions of phosphatidylserine in the bilayer higher than 0.1. For the quantitative determination of the membrane bending rigidity, we applied thermal fluctuation analysis of the shape of quasispherical lipid vesicles. As far as the liquid-crystalline state of the bilayer is a necessary condition for the application of the experimental method, only vesicles satisfying this requirement were processed for determination of their membrane bending rigidity. The value obtained for the bending modulus of bilayers with 0.15 molar content of charged lipid is about two times higher than the bending modulus of uncharged membranes in the same bathing solution. These findings are in qualitative agreement with our previous results for the bending rigidity of charged bilayers, measured by vesicle micromanipulation.

Molecular-dynamic simulation of DPPC bilayer in different phase state: Hydration and electric field distribution in the presence of Be2+ cations

New molecular-dynamic topology of phosphatidylcholine bilayer (DPPC) in total atomic OPLS force field was developed and used to study the structural characteristics of liquid-crystalline and gel state of lipid bilayer in the absence and in the presence of Na+ and Be2+ cations adsorbed at the interface and different in their affinity. The parameters of bilayer geometry, the amount of surface water, and the electrostatic potential distribution were estimated quantitatively from the simulation in both phase states. The azimuthal angle of hydrocarbon chains was found nearly the same in the region of each monolayer in gel state. The amount of surface water decreases upon bilayer “freezing” mainly by loss of water molecules not participating in H-bonds between lipid headgroups. The cation adsorption was shown to have a small effect on these H-bonded water molecules, whereas Be2+ appeared to retain surface water in the bilayer upon its freezing. The electric potential distribution in the normal direction to the membrane-water interface had a similar shape in any bilayer phase state regardless of the presence of the adsorbed cations. Analysis of the microscopic nature of the electric potential revealed a mutual compensation of the contributions of the main structural components of the system (lipids, water, and ions). The boundary potential increased by 116 mV for pure DPPC, by 212 mV in the presence of Na+, and by 133 mV in the presence of Be2+ upon the phase transition of bilayer to the gel state. The boundary potential difference in the presence of Na+ and Be2+ and its change at the bilayer phase transition are in a good agreement with the experimental data published earlier [Ermakov Yu.A., 1993].

Relationships between electrostatic and mechanical characteristics of dimyristoylphosphatidylserine monolayer

The molecular nature of the boundary (Volta) potential variations with compression of dimyristoylphosphatidylserine monolayers at the water-air interface was studied. The previously published [1] experimental pressure-area diagrams measured simultaneously with Volta potentials in a wide range of electrolyte compositions (KCl and pH) were analyzed with the Gouy-Chapman-Stern theory of the electrical double layer and the electrostatic contribution to the lateral pressure was evaluated. It was shown that the competitive binding of hydrogen and potassium to the lipid headgroups at pH around 6.0 leads to a non-monotonous increase of lateral pressure with KCl concentration in a manner similar to that observed in experiments. However, the magnitude of the measured effect is considerably higher than the theoretical estimation and thus, besides electrostatic repulsion, contributions of other mechanochemical effects should be taken into account. An empirical analysis of experimental data reveals a direct correlation between local compressibility of monolayer and the slope of Volta potential with compression. These local parameters change with the surface pressure but remain proportional to each other with a constant factor in the entire range of surface pressures including the region of the liquid expanded-liquid compact phase transition. The magnitude of this factor is about 0.5 V nm−2 for the range of KCl concentrations between 0.1 and 100 mM. The “softer” segments of pressure-area diagrams correspond to larger changes in Volta potential. The analysis suggests that condensation of lipids with external pressure may lead to an expulsion of water from the polar region of the monolayer, and the removal of this partially oriented water may result in a substantial change of the total dipole potential at the interface.

Molecular distribution and charge of polylysine layers at the surface of lipid membranes and mica

Electrophoretic mobility of cardiolipin liposomes was measured in the presence of polylysines of different molecular weight at various concentrations of the background electrolyte (KCl). The electrophoretic mobility in a liposome suspension changes its sign and reaches a plateau at high polylysine content. The surface charge in the plateau region was determined according to the Gouy-Chapman model of the electrical double layer. The average charge density was found to equal 0.005 and 0.016 Coulomb/m2 for the polymer length of 5 and 12 units (bases), respectively, and 0.032 Coulomb/m2 for polylysines with the length of 130 and 1435 units. The molecular distribution of these polylysines was studied at the mica surface using atomic force microscopy in the 10-mM KCl solution. It was shown that pentalysine molecules covered uniformly about 90% of the surface with the layer thickness of about 0.8 nm. The high-molecular polylysines cover about 60% of the surface with the layer thickness of more than 1.5 nm. The data suggest that the polymer forms a compact layer on the membrane surface; the charge density at the outer surface is determined both by the polymer properties and by the total amount of anionic lipids, irrespective of their ionization state.

Lateral stress profile and fluorescent lipid probes. FRET pair of probes that introduces minimal distortions into lipid packing

The modern theory of lipid membrane structure incorporates the concept of lateral stress profile. The latter represents the forces that act on any solute inside the membrane. We used this concept to propose two lipid probes that introduce minimal distortions into the lipid bilayer packing: the surface pressure isotherms and volt-potentials of the pure and mixed (probe-containing) lipid monolayers are equal. The probes represent a FRET pair. They are applicable in lipid transfer and vesicle fusion experiments.

Boundary potential of lipid bilayers: methods and interpretations

The electric field distribution at the boundaries of cell membrane consists of diffuse part of the electrical double layer and the potential drop over polar area inside the membrane itself. The latter is generally attributed to the dipole effect, which depends on the lipid hydration and phase state. This report focuses on the experimental approaches developed to detect the relation between dipole effects and the bilayer structure, and to study their molecular nature. The total boundary potential (BP) of planar bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) can be controlled by Intramembranous Field Compensation (IFC) method developed in our laboratory. When combined with electrokinetic measurements in liposome suspension it allows detecting the changes of the dipole potential due to adsorption of inorganic cations and charged molecules. Multivalent inorganic cations increase the dipole potential up to 100-150 mV and make the membrane rigid. Most of these observations were simulated by Molecular Dynamics (MD) in order to visualize the relationship of electric field with the different structural factors (lipid structure, water orientation, ion adsorption etc.) responsible for its dipole component. Two principal contributors to BP – water and lipid molecules – create the opposite effects. The negative contribution with respect to the bulk is due to lipid itself and the inorganic cation penetration into the polar area of membrane. The positive contribution is caused by water orientation. Particularly, in the case of lysine adsorption, the contribution of water includes the rearrangement of H-bonds with the lipid phosphate group. This fact explains well the unusual kinetic phenomena registered by IFC in the case of polylysine adsorption at the BLM surface.