Reversible electrical breakdown of lipid bilayers: formation and evolution of pores.

The mechanism of reversible electric breakdown of lipid membranes is studied. The following stages of the process of pore development are substantiated. Hydrophobic pores are formed in the lipid bilayer by spontaneous fluctuations. If these water-filled defects extend to a radius of 0.3 to 0.5 nm, a hydrophilic pore is formed by reorientation of the lipid molecules. This process is favoured by a potential difference across the membrane. The conductivity of the pores depends on membrane voltage, and the type of this dependence changes with the radius of the pore. Hydrophilic pores of an effective radius of 0.6 up to more than 1 nm are formed, which account for the membrane conductivity increase observed. The characteristic times of changes in average radius and number of pores during the voltage pulse and after it are investigated.

[1]  V A Parsegian,et al.  ION‐MEMBRANE INTERACTIONS AS STRUCTURAL FORCES , 1975, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[2]  M. R. Tarasevich,et al.  246 - Electric breakdown of bilayer lipid membranes I. The main experimental facts and their qualitative discussion , 1979 .

[3]  T. Tsong,et al.  Voltage-induced pore formation and hemolysis of human erythrocytes. , 1977, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[4]  M. Kozlov,et al.  The shape of lipid molecules and monolayer membrane fusion , 1985 .

[5]  L. Chernomordik,et al.  468—the study of the BLM reversible electrical breakdown mechanism in the presence of UO22+ , 1982 .

[6]  C. Haest,et al.  Dielectric breakdown of the erythrocyte membrane enhances transbilayer mobility of phospholipids. , 1983, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[7]  J. Israelachvili,et al.  Measurement of the hydrophobic interaction between two hydrophobic surfaces in aqueous electrolyte solutions , 1984 .

[8]  C Sauterey,et al.  Osmotic pressure induced pores in phospholipid vesicles. , 1975, Biochemistry.

[9]  L. Chernomordik,et al.  The electrical breakdown of cell and lipid membranes: the similarity of phenomenologies. , 1987, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[10]  J. Weaver,et al.  A quantitative theory of reversible electrical breakdown in bilayer membranes , 1986 .

[11]  R. Rand.  Interacting phospholipid bilayers: measured forces and induced structural changes. , 1981, Annual review of biophysics and bioengineering.

[12]  L. Chernomordik,et al.  Breakdown of lipid bilayer membranes in an electric field , 1983 .

[13]  E. Neumann,et al.  Stochastic model for electric field-induced membrane pores. Electroporation. , 1984, Biophysical chemistry.