scholarly journals Liquid-Liquid Crystalline Phase Separation in Biological Filamentous Colloids: Nucleation, Growth and Order-Order Transitions of Cholesteric Tactoids

Soft Matter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paride Azzari ◽  
Massimo Bagnani ◽  
Raffaele Mezzenga
Keyword(s):  
Phase Separation ◽  
Crystalline Phase ◽  
Liquid Crystalline ◽  
Liquid Crystalline Phase ◽  
Technological Processes ◽  
Nucleation Growth

The process of Liquid-Liquid Crystalline Phase Separation (LLCPS) in filamentous colloids is at the very core of multiple biological, physical and technological processes of broad significance. However, the complete theoretical...

Mechanism of liposome destabilization by polycationic amino acids

1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard M. Epand ◽  
Wendy Lim
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transition ◽  
Amino Acids ◽  
Phase Separation ◽  
Physical Properties ◽  
Crystalline Phase ◽  
Emission Intensity ◽  
Liquid Crystalline ◽  
Liquid Crystalline Phase ◽  
Lateral Phase Separation ◽  
Presence And Absence

Polycationic amino acids induce the leakage and fusion of liposomes containing anionic lipids. We have investigated the nature and extent of the changes in membrane physical properties caused by these polypeptides which could result in the observed membrane destabilization. We found that in the range of pH 5 to pH 7 both poly-l-histidine and poly-l-lysine were ineffective in shifting the bilayer to hexagonal phase transition temperature of dielaidoylphosphatidylethanolamine, either in the presence of absence of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylserine. We also studied the gel to liquid crystalline phase transition properties of 1:1 mixtures of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine, both in dimyristoyl forms as well as the 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl forms, as a function of pH and in the presence and absence of polycationic amino acids. We observed that these two lipids were largely miscible at all pH values and in the presence and absence of the polypeptides. However, there was some increased tendency for phase separation at higher pH and in the absence of polypeptide. Thus neither changes in curvature strain nor lateral phase separation induced by the polycationic amino acids could account for their marked ability to induce leakage and fusion. Phosphatidylethanolamine labelled with pyrene on one of the acyl chains gives rise to fluorescent emission from both monomer and excimer forms. The ratio of emission intensity from these two forms is indicative of lateral phase separation and the degree of lateral mobility of this probe. In equimolar mixtures of the 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl forms of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine in the liquid crystalline phase at 30 °C we find little effect of pH on the ratio of excimer to monomer emission intensity. However poly-l-lysine markedly lowers the fraction of excimer emission from these liposomes through the pH range from 5 to 7. Poly-l-histidine lowers the excimer to monomer emission ratio at pH 5 but not at pH 7. This is opposite to what one would expect for lateral phase separation and is interpreted at being the consequence of the polypeptide lowering the rate of lateral diffusion of the lipids. This effect of poly-l-histidine is observed over a range of temperatures from 0 to 40°C in both gel and liquid crystalline phases. There is no evidence from the behaviour of the pyrene fluorescent probe for lipid interdigitation. We conclude that the promotion of leakage and fusion in anionic liposomes by polycationic amino acids is not a result of large changes in the physical properties or arrangements of the lipids but rather to a surface binding of the polyamino acids.

scholarly journals Electron transfer studies of a conventional redox probe in human sweat and saliva bio-mimicking conditions

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Krishnaveni ◽  
V. Ganesh
Keyword(s):  
Electron Transfer ◽  
Crystalline Phase ◽  
Liquid Crystalline ◽  
Transfer Reaction ◽  
Electron Transfer Reaction ◽  
Redox Couple ◽  
Liquid Crystalline Phase ◽  
Transfer Reactions ◽  
Redox Probe ◽  
Human Sweat

AbstractModern day hospital treatments aim at developing electrochemical biosensors for early diagnosis of diseases using unconventional human bio-fluids like sweat and saliva by monitoring the electron transfer reactions of target analytes. Such kinds of health care diagnostics primarily avoid the usage of human blood and urine samples. In this context, here we have investigated the electron transfer reaction of a well-known and commonly used redox probe namely, potassium ferro/ferri cyanide by employing artificially simulated bio-mimics of human sweat and saliva as unconventional electrolytes. Typically, electron transfer characteristics of the redox couple, [Fe(CN)6]3−/4− are investigated using electrochemical techniques like cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Many different kinetic parameters are determined and compared with the conventional system. In addition, such electron transfer reactions have also been studied using a lyotropic liquid crystalline phase comprising of Triton X-100 and water in which the aqueous phase is replaced with either human sweat or saliva bio-mimics. From these studies, we find out the electron transfer reaction of [Fe(CN)6]3−/4− redox couple is completely diffusion controlled on both Au and Pt disc shaped electrodes in presence of sweat and saliva bio-mimic solutions. Moreover, the reaction is partially blocked by the presence of lyotropic liquid crystalline phase consisting of sweat and saliva bio-mimics indicating the predominant charge transfer controlled process for the redox probe. However, the rate constant values associated with the electron transfer reaction are drastically reduced in presence of liquid crystalline phase. These studies are essentially carried out to assess the effect of sweat and saliva on the electrochemistry of Fe2+/3+ redox couple.

Liquid crystalline phase transitions in hexakis(4-(4′-heptyloxy)biphenoxy)cyclotriphosphazene

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 795-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Moriya ◽  
H. Mizusaki ◽  
M. Kato ◽  
S. Yano ◽  
M. Kajiwara
Keyword(s):  
Phase Transitions ◽  
Crystalline Phase ◽  
Liquid Crystalline ◽  
Liquid Crystalline Phase
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