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Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) have been widely used to study protein-lipid membrane interactions because their planar geometry is suitable for many surface analysis tools. However, the friction coupling between the support and the membrane can influence the properties of biomolecules in the membrane. Many studies have attempted to span SLBs over nanostructured supports to create free-standing regions in SLBs for biosensor applications. However, membranes following the support surface contour are more frequently observed than are free-standing membranes on structured supports, indicating that the parameter range suitable for formation of free-standing SLBs might be narrow and more information is necessary to understand the required conditions. The objective of this study was to estimate the system energies of free-standing and contour-following membrane states and determine which state is the most energetically favorable under various conditions. For a lipid membrane preferring to stay close to the support, an energy reward occurs when they are in close proximity; however, increasing the contact area on a structured surface can result in an energy penalty because of the bending of the lipid bilayer. Whether the energy reward or the energy penalty dominates could determine the membrane state. We used the extended Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory and the Helfrich bending theory to relate the energy sizes to experimentally controllable parameters. We experimentally examined whether the membrane state followed the model prediction when we used various buffer ionic strengths, various lipid types, and nanograting supports with three different geometries. Because it is difficult to observe the experimental membrane state directly at the nanoscale, we developed a method to use the fluorescence recovery shape change after photobleaching to distinguish experimental membrane states at the micrometer scale. Our experimental results closely matched the theoretical predictions, suggesting that the developed model can be used to predict suitable conditions for formation of free-standing bilayers on nanostructured solid supports.

Forming fluid supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) on a gold surface can enable various lipid-membrane-associated biomolecular interactions to be investigated by several surface sensing techniques, such as surface plasmon resonance and scanning tunneling microscopy. However, forming fluid SLBs on a gold surface through lipid vesicle deposition continues to pose a challenge. In this study, we constructed nanograting structures on a gold surface to induce lipid vesicle rupture for forming a mobile layer of SLBs. Observations based on fluorescence recovery after photobleaching showed that SLBs on the prepared grating supports had some fluidity, while SLBs on the planar support had no fluidity. The anisotropic fluorescence intensity recovery shape changes observed in the SLBs on the grating support suggested that a second layer of SLBs partially formed on top of the first layer in contact with the gold surface and extended along the grating structure. Comparisons of the relative amounts of second bilayer and the fluorescence recovery fractions on supports with various grating edge densities suggested that the second layer formed at the edge regions and that the coverage ratio was directly proportional to the grating edge density. All of these results showed that the grating edges could serve as vesicle-rupture-inducing sites for the formation of a mobile second SLB on a gold surface. The formation of the second layer of SLBs at the edge regions but not in the flat regions enabled us to determine the second layer locations and provided us with an opportunity to pattern mobile lipid bilayers on gold surfaces by controlling the edge locations.

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