Related papers: Enhanced roughness of lipid membranes caused by ex…
The influence of an electric field on a poorly conductive membrane such as a lipid bilayer is studied theoretically. The unbalanced electric stress created by an ionic current across a non-perfectly flat membrane gives rise to a…
Contrary to existing theoretical models, experimental evidence points out that electroporation (membrane defect formation under external electric fields) starts to occur within the range of transmembrane voltages that cells may routinely…
For many biotechnological applications it would be useful to better understand the effects produced by electric fields on lipid membranes. This review discusses several aspects of the electrostatic properties of a planar lipid membrane with…
The effect of AC electric fields on the elasticity of supported lipid bilayers has been investigated at the microscopic level using grazing incidence synchrotron x-ray scattering. A strong decrease in the membrane tension up to 1mN/m and a…
It is well known that lipid membranes respond to a threshold transmembrane electric field through a reversible mechanism called electroporation, where hydrophilic water pores form across the membrane, an effect widely used in biological…
The electropermeabilization of biological cell membranes by the application of an external field occurs whenever an applied field exceeds a threshold value. For fields above this threshold value but less than another critical value, the…
Understanding how electric fields destabilize biological membranes is important for electroporation-based technologies and bioelectronic interfaces. However, theoretical descriptions of this phenomenon remain fragmented. Existing theories…
The behavior of a non-conductive quasi-planar lipid membrane in an electrolyte and in a static (DC) electric field is investigated theoretically in the nonlinear (Poisson-Boltzmann) regime. Electrostatic effects due to charges in the…
The linear stability of a lipid membrane under a DC electric field, applied perpendicularly to the interface, is investigated in the electrokinetic framework, taking into account the dynamics of the Debye layers formed near the membrane.…
We have studied the ground state of the one dimensional Hubbard superlattice structures with different unit cell sizes in the presence of electric field. Self consistent Hartree-Fock approximation calculation is done in the weak to…
The coupling of electric fields to the mechanics of lipid membranes gives rise to intriguing electromechanical behavior, as, for example, evidenced by the deformation of lipid vesicles in external electric fields. Electromechanical effects…
A new model for the interaction of an electric pulse with a lipid membrane is proposed. Using this model we show that when a DC electric pulse is applied to an insulating lipid membrane separating fluids with different conductivities, the…
The morphology of spherically confined flexoelectric fluid membrane vesicles in an external uniform electric field is studied numerically. Due to the deformations induced by the confinement, the membrane becomes polarized resulting in an…
It was recently discovered that friction between surfaces bearing phosphatidylcholine (PC) lipid bilayers can be increased by two orders of magnitude or more via an externally-applied electric field, and that this increase is fully…
We study the effect of permeabilizing electric fields applied to two different types of giant unilamellar vesicles, the first formed from EggPC lipids and the second formed from DOPC lipids. Experiments on vesicles of both lipid types show…
Biomembranes are thin capacitors with the unique feature of displaying phase transitions in a physiologically relevant regime. We investigate the voltage and lateral pressure dependence of their capacitance close to their chain melting…
Dielectric interfaces are crucial to the behavior of charged membranes, from graphene to synthetic and biological lipid bilayers. Understanding electrolyte behavior near these interfaces remains a challenge, especially in the case of rough…
The electrostatic contribution to spontaneous membrane curvature is calculated within Poisson-Boltzmann theory under a variety of assumptions and emphasizing parameters in the physiological range. Asymmetric surface charges, either fixed…
Lipid membranes are abundant in living organisms, where they constitute a surrounding shell for cells and their organelles. There are many circumstances in which the deformations of lipid membranes are involved in living cells: fusion and…
Bilayer lipid membranes [BLMs] are an essential component of all biological systems, forming a functional barrier for cells and organelles from the surrounding environment. The lipid molecules that form membranes contain both permanent and…