Late Stages of the “Pearling" Instability in Lipid Bilayers

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (9) ◽  
pp. 1185-1204 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Coveas ◽  
S. T. Milner ◽  
W. B. Russel
Keyword(s):  
1996 ◽  
Vol 463 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Goveas ◽  
S. T. Milner ◽  
W. B. Russel

ABSTRACTWe have studied the late stages of the “pearling instability” in lipid bilayers, which is brought on by applying laser tweezers to a cylindrical vesicle. This produces a front that propagates down the vesicle, leaving behind it bilayer-covered droplets separated by thin tubes, which appear under the microscope as pearls on a string. At later times, the “pearls” are observed to drift slowly towards the “trap” (the spot where the tweezers are applied, into which the surfactant is drawn). We model the hydrodynamics of the drifting pearls as a combination of translation of the string of pearls, and “slipping” of the bilayer skin over the pearls, to relate the speed of the pearls to the underlying flux of the surfactant into the trap.


Author(s):  
Neng-Bo He ◽  
S.W. Hui

Monolayers and planar "black" lipid membranes have been widely used as models for studying the structure and properties of biological membranes. Because of the lack of a suitable method to prepare these membranes for electron microscopic observation, their ultrastructure is so far not well understood. A method of forming molecular bilayers over the holes of fine mesh grids was developed by Hui et al. to study hydrated and unsupported lipid bilayers by electron diffraction, and to image phase separated domains by diffraction contrast. We now adapted the method of Pattus et al. of spreading biological membranes vesicles on the air-water interfaces to reconstitute biological membranes into unsupported planar films for electron microscopic study. hemoglobin-free human erythrocyte membrane stroma was prepared by hemolysis. The membranes were spreaded at 20°C on balanced salt solution in a Langmuir trough until a surface pressure of 20 dyne/cm was reached. The surface film was repeatedly washed by passing to adjacent troughs over shallow partitions (fig. 1).


Author(s):  
S. Kirchanski ◽  
D. Branton

We have investigated the effect of integral membrane proteins upon the fracturing of frozen lipid bilayers. This investigation has been part of an effort to develop freeze fracture labeling techniques and to assess the possible breakage of covalent protein bonds during the freeze fracture process. We have developed an experimental protocol utilizing lectin affinity columns which should detect small amounts of covalent bond breakage during the fracture of liposomes containing purified (1) glycophorin (a transmembrane glycoprotein of human erythrocyte membranes). To fracture liposomes in bulk, frozen liposomes are ground repeatedly under liquid nitrogen. Failure to detect any significant covalent bond breakage (contrary to (2)) led us to question the effectiveness of our grinding procedure in fracturing and splitting lipid bilayers.


2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 36-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Chládek ◽  
V. Havlas ◽  
T. Trc

SummaryThe treatment of femoral head necrosis of adults is still rather problematic. Conservative treatment has been reported relatively unsuccessful and surgical treatment does not show convincing results either. The most effective seems to be a surgical treatment in early stages of the disease, however, the diagnosis still remains relatively complicated. For the late stages (2B and above) the most effective treatment option is represented by core decompression and vascular grafting. However, drilling and plombage (especially when using press-fit technique) seems to be successful, although not excellent. The authors describe their own method of drilling and plombage of the necrotic zone of the femoral head in 41 patients with X-ray detected necrotic changes of the femoral head. The pain measured by VAS was seen to decrease after surgery in all patients significantly. The Jacobs score was also observed to have increased (from fair to good outcome). We have not observed any large femoral head collapse after surgery, moreover, in some cases an improvement of the round shape of the femoral head was seen. It is important to mention that in all cases femoral heads with existing necrotic changes (flattening or collapse) were treated. Although the clinical improvement after surgery was not significantly high, the method we describe is a safe and simple method of diminishing pain in attempt to prepare the femoral head for further treatment in a future, without significant restriction of the indication due to necrosis (osteochondroplasty, resurfacing, THR).


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 150-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mehadi Hasan Sohag ◽  
Olivier Nicoud ◽  
Racha Amine ◽  
Abir Khalil-Mgharbel ◽  
Jean-Pierre Alcaraz ◽  
...  

AbstractThe goal of this study was to determine whether the Tethapod system, which was designed to determine the impedance properties of lipid bilayers, could be used for cell culture in order to utilise micro-impedance spectroscopy to examine further biological applications. To that purpose we have used normal epithelial cells from kidney (RPTEC) and a kidney cancer cell model (786-O). We demonstrate that the Tethapod system is compatible with the culture of 10,000 cells seeded to grow on a small area gold measurement electrode for several days without affecting the cell viability. Furthermore, the range of frequencies for EIS measurements were tuned to examine easily the characteristics of the cell monolayer. We demonstrate significant differences in the paracellular resistance pathway between normal and cancer kidney epithelial cells. Thus, we conclude that this device has advantages for the study of cultured cells that include (i) the configuration of measurement and reference electrodes across a microfluidic channel, and (ii) the small surface area of 6 parallel measurement electrodes (2.1 mm2) integrated in a microfluidic system. These characteristics might improve micro-impedance spectroscopy measurement techniques to provide a simple tool for further studies in the field of the patho-physiology of biological barriers.


Author(s):  
Е.И. Захарова ◽  
З.И. Сторожева ◽  
А.Т. Прошин ◽  
М.Ю. Монаков ◽  
А.М. Дудченко

Цель - исследование холинергической синаптической организации функций обучения и памяти у крыс с разными когнитивными способностями. Методы. Крыс обучали на пространственной обстановочной модели в водном лабиринте Морриса. Через 2-3 сут. после окончания тренировок животных декапитировали, из неокортекса и гиппокампа с помощью центрифугирования выделяли субфракции синаптических мембран и синаптоплазмы легких и тяжелых синаптосом. В синаптических субфракциях определяли активность ключевого фермента холинергических нейронов холинацетилтрансферазы (ХАТ). Сравнивали результаты тестирования (время достижения скрытой платформы) и активность фермента у способных и неспособных к обучению крыс. Результаты. Были выявлены: 1) различия в холинергической организации исследованных функций в процессе обучения у способных и неспособных к обучению крыс, в том числе: положительные корреляции активности ХАТ в синапсах проекционных нейронов неокортекса у способных крыс со временем достижения платформы на промежуточных этапах обучения и в синапсах проекционных нейронов гиппокампа у неспособных крыс на позднем этапе обучения; разнонаправленные корреляции активности ХАТ в синапсах, предположительно, интернейронов гиппокампа (фракция тяжелых синаптосом) у способных и неспособных крыс на начальном и позднем этапах обучения; 2) индивидуальность холинергической организации функций на всех этапах обучения. Выводы. Полученные данные свидетельствуют в пользу представлений о специфике холинергической организации функций пространственного обстановочного обучения у крыс с выраженными и слабыми способностями к обучению, а также избирательной роли холинергических интернейронов гиппокампа на исходном этапе обучения и в консолидации памяти. In order to expand the knowledge about neuronal organization of the cognitive functions required for understanding plastic processes in the brain, we investigated the cholinergic synaptic organization of learning and memory functions in rats with different cognitive abilities. Methods. Rats were trained on a contextual situation model in the Morris water maze. At 2-3 days after the end of training, animals were decapitated, and subfractions of synaptic membranes and synaptoplasm of light and heavy synaptosomes were isolated from the cortex and the hippocampus by centrifugation. In synaptic subfractions, activity of the key enzyme of cholinergic neurons, choline acetyltransferase, was measured. We compared the test results (latent period to reach the hidden platform) and the enzyme activity in capable (lower quartile) and incapable of learning rats (upper quartile). Results. The following was found: 1) differences in the cholinergic organization of studied functions in capable and uncapable of learning rats during training, including: positive correlations of choline acetyltransferase activity in synapses of projection neurons in the cortex of capable rats with latency to reach the platform at intermediate stages of training and in the hippocampus ofincapable rats at late stages of training; multidirectional correlations of choline acetyltransferase activity in synapses of hippocampal, presumably, interneurons (heavy synaptosomes) in capable and incapable rats at early and late stages of training; 2) distinctness of the cholinergic organization of functions at all stages of training. Conclusions. The study demonstrated for the first time a specificity of the cholinergic organization of functions in spatial situational learning of rats with strong and poor learning abilities and a selective role of hippocampal cholinergic interneurons at the initial stage of learning and in memory consolidation.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
HanByul Chang ◽  
Paul Ohno ◽  
Yangdongling Liu ◽  
Franz Geiger

We report the detection of charge reversal induced by the adsorption of a cationic polyelectrolyte, poly(allylamine) hydrochloride (PAH), to buried supported lipid bilayers (SLBs), used as idealized model biological membranes. We observe changes in the surface potential in isolation from other contributors to the total SHG response by extracting the phase-shifted potential-dependent third-order susceptibility from the overall SHG signal. We demonstrate the utility of this technique in detecting both the sign of the surface potential and the point of charge reversal at buried interfaces without any prior information or complementary techniques<i>.</i>Furthermore, isolation of the second-order susceptibility contribution from the overall SHG response allows us to directly monitor changes in the Stern Layer. Finally, we characterize the Stern and Diffuse Layers over single-component SLBs formed from three different zwitterionic lipids of different gel-to-fluid phase transition temperatures (T<sub>m</sub>s). We determine whether the surface potential changes with the physical phase state (gel, transitioning, or fluid) of the SLB and incorporate 20 percent of negatively charged lipids to the zwitterionic SLB to investigate how the surface potential changes with surface charge.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Jordan ◽  
Nathan Wittenberg

This is a comprehensive study of the effects of the four major brain gangliosides (GM1, GD1b, GD1a, and GT1b) on the adsorption and rupture of phospholipid vesicles on SiO2 surfaces for the formation of supported lipid bilayer (SLB) membranes. Using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) we show that gangliosides GD1a and GT1b significantly slow the SLB formation process, whereas GM1 and GD1b have smaller effects. This is likely due to the net ganglioside charge as well as the positions of acidic sugar groups on ganglioside glycan head groups. Data is included that shows calcium can accelerate the formation of ganglioside-rich SLBs. Using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) we also show that the presence of gangliosides significantly reduces lipid diffusion coefficients in SLBs in a concentration-dependent manner. Finally, using QCM-D and GD1a-rich SLB membranes we measure the binding kinetics of an anti-GD1a antibody that has similarities to a monoclonal antibody that is a hallmark of a variant of Guillain-Barre syndrome.


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