Seminar Abstract
February 9, 2005
"Pores in Lipid Bilayers - Effect of Anisotropic Inclusions
on Pore Stability"
Dr. Miha Fosnaric
Group of Applied Physics
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Biological cells exchange material with the surrounding environment through
the cell membrane. One of the mechanisms for transmembrane transport
involves the presence of pores in the lipid bilayer, through which a
substantial flow of material can take place.
However, pores in lipid bilayers are usually not stable; they shrink due to
the highly unfavorable line tension of the pore rim. Even in the presence of
charged lipids or certain additives such as detergents or isotropic membrane
inclusions, membrane pores are generally not expected to be energetically
stabilized.
In this seminar, a simple theoretical model [1] that predicts the existence
of stable pores in a lipid membrane will be presented. Possible applications
of the model will be discussed and the model will be used to explain the
observed dependency of the pore size in the membrane of red blood cell
ghosts on the ionic strength of the surrounding solution.
[1] M. Fosnaric, V. Kralj-Iglic, K. Bohinc, A. Iglic and S. May,
Stabilization of pores in lipid bilayers by anisotropic inclusions,
J. Phys. Chem. B 107 12519-12526 (2003).
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