Mussels adhere to a variety of surfaces by depositing a highly specific ensemble of 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine (DOPA) containing proteins. The adhesive properties of Mytilus edulis foot proteins mfp-1 and mfp-3 were directly measured at the nano-scale by using a surface forces apparatus (SFA). An adhesion energy of order W Ϸ3 ؋ 10 ؊4 J/m 2 was achieved when separating two smooth and chemically inert surfaces of mica (a common alumino-silicate clay mineral) bridged or ''glued'' by mfp-3. This energy corresponds to an approximate force per plaque of Ϸ100 gm, more than enough to hold a mussel in place if no peeling occurs. In contrast, no adhesion was detected between mica surfaces bridged by mfp-1. AFM imaging and SFA experiments showed that mfp-1 can adhere well to one mica surface, but is unable to then link to another (unless sheared), even after prolonged contact time or increased load (pressure). Although mechanistic explanations for the different behaviors are not yet possible, the results are consistent with the apparent function of the proteins, i.e., mfp-1 is disposed as a ''protective'' coating, and mfp-3 as the adhesive or ''glue'' that binds mussels to surfaces. The results suggest that the adhesion on mica is due to weak physical interactions rather than chemical bonding, and that the strong adhesion forces of plaques arise as a consequence of their geometry (e.g., their inability to be peeled off) rather than a high intrinsic surface or adhesion energy, W. bioadhesion ͉ Mytilus edulis

Mussels use a variety of 3, 4-dihydroxyphenyl-l-alanine (DOPA) rich proteins specifically tailored to adhering to wet surfaces. Synthetic polypeptide analogues of adhesive mussel foot proteins (specifically mfp-3) are used to study the role of DOPA in adhesion. The mussel-inspired peptide is a random copolymer of DOPA and N5 -(2-hydroxyethyl)-l-glutamine synthesized with DOPA concentrations of 0–27 mol% and molecular weights of 5.9–7.1 kDa. Thin films (3–5 nm thick) of the mussel-inspired peptide are used in the surface forces apparatus (SFA) to measure the force–distance profiles and adhesion and cohesion energies of the films in an acetate buffer. The adhesion energies of the mussel-inspired peptide films to mica and TiO2 surfaces increase with DOPA concentration. The adhesion energy to mica is 0.09 μJ m−2 molDOPA−1 and does not depend on contact time or load. The adhesion energy to TiO2 is 0.29 μJ m−2 molDOPA−1 for short contact times and increases to 0.51 μJ m−2 molDOPA−1 for contact times >60 min in a way suggestive of a phase transition within the film. Oxidation of DOPA to the quinone form, either by addition of periodate or by increasing the pH, increases the thickness and reduces the cohesion of the films. Adding thiol containing polymers between the oxidized films recovers some of the cohesion strength. Comparison of the mussel-inspired peptide films to previous studies on mfp-3 thin films show that the strong adhesion and cohesion in mfp-3 films can be attributed to DOPA groups favorably oriented within or at the interface of these films.

We have investigated the formation of phospholipid bilayers of the neutral (zwitterionic) lipid dimyristoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) on various glass surfaces from vesicles in various aqueous solutions and temperatures using a number of complementary techniques: the surface forces apparatus (SFA), quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), fluorescence microscopy, and streaming potential (SP) measurements. The process involves five stages: vesicle adhesion to the substrate surfaces via electrostatic and van der Waals forces, steric interactions with neighboring vesicles, rupture, spreading via hydrophobic fusion of bilayer edges, and ejection of excess lipid, trapped water, and ions into the solution. The forces between DMPC bilayers and silica were measured in the SFA in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), and the adhesion energy was found to be 0.5-1 mJ/m(2) depending on the method of bilayer preparation. This value is stronger than the expected adhesion predicted by van der Waals interactions. Theoretical analysis of the bilayer-silica interaction shows that the strong attraction is likely due to an attractive electrostatic interaction between the uncharged bilayer and negatively charged silica owing to the surfaces interacting at "constant potential." However, the bilayer-silica interaction in distilled water was found to be repulsive at all distances, which is attributed to the surfaces interacting at "constant charge." These results are consistent with QCM measurements that show vesicles readily forming bilayers on silica in high salt but only weakly adhering in low salt conditions. We conclude that the electrostatic interaction is the most important interaction in determining the adhesion between neutral bilayers and charged hydrophilic surfaces. SP and FRAP experiments gave insights into the bilayer formation process as well as information on the surface coverage, lateral diffusion of the lipid molecules, and surface potential of the bilayers during the spreading process.

After nearly 30 years of research on the hydrophobic interaction, the search for the hydrophobic force law is still continuing. Indeed, there are more questions than answers, and the experimental data are often quite different for nominally similar conditions, as well as, apparently, for nano-, micro-, and macroscopic surfaces. This has led to the conclusion that the experimentally observed force–distance relationships are either a combination of different ‘fundamental’ interactions, or that the hydrophobic force-law, if there is one, is complex – depending on numerous parameters. The only unexpectedly strong attractive force measured in all experiments so far has a range of D ≈ 100–200 Å, increasing roughly exponentially down to ~ 10–20 Å and then more steeply down to adhesive contact at D = 0 or, for power-law potentials, effectively at D ≈ 2 Å. The measured forces in this regime (100–200 Å) and especially the adhesive forces are much stronger, and have a different distance-dependence from the continuum VDW force (Lifshitz theory) for non-conducting dielectric media. We suggest a three-regime force-law for the forces observed between hydrophobic surfaces: In the first, from 100–200 Å to thousands of ångstroms, the dominating force is created by complementary electrostatic domains or patches on the apposing surfaces and/or bridging vapour cavities; a ‘pure’ but still not well-understood ‘long-range hydrophobic force’ dominates the second regime from ~ 150 to ~ 15 Å, possibly due to an enhanced Hamaker constant associated with the ‘proton-hopping’ polarizability of water; while below ~ 10–15 Å to contact there is another ‘pure short-range hydrophobic force’ related to water structuring effects associated with surface-induced changes in the orientation and/or density of water molecules and H-bonds at the water–hydrophobic interface. We present recent SFA and other experimental results, as well as a simplified model for water based on a spherically-symmetric potential that is able to capture some basic features of hydrophobic association. Such a model may be useful for theoretical studies of the HI over the broad range of scales observed in SFA experiments.

We consider the adhesive interaction energy between a pair of vesicles in the strong adhesion limit, in which bending forces play a negligible role in determining vesicle shape compared to forces due to membrane stretching. Although force-distance or energy distance relationships characterizing adhesive interactions between fluid bilayers are routinely measured using the surface forces apparatus, the atomic force microscope and the biomembrane force probe, the interacting bilayers in these methods are supported on surfaces (e.g. mica sheet) and cannot be deformed. However, it is known that in a suspension, vesicles composed of the same bilayer can deform by stretching or bending, and can also undergo changes in volume. Adhesively interacting vesicles can thus form flat regions in the contact zone, which will result in an enhanced interaction energy as compared to rigid vesicles. The focus of this paper is to examine the magnitude of the interaction energy between adhesively interacting, deformed vesicles relative to free, undeformed vesicles as a function of the intervesicle separation. The modification of the intervesicle interaction energy due to vesicle deformability can be calculated knowing the undeformed radius of the vesicles, R 0 , the bending modulus k b , the area expansion modulus K a , and the adhesive minimum and separation in the energy of interaction between two flat bilayers, which can be obtained from the force-distance measurements made using the above supported-bilayer methods. For vesicles with constant volumes, we show that adhesive potentials between nondeforming bilayers such as , which are ordinarily considered weak in colloidal physics literature, can result in significantly deep (>10×) energy minima due to increase in vesicle area and flattening in the contact region. If the osmotic expulsion of water across the vesicles driven by the tense, stretched membrane in the presence of an osmotically active solute is also taken into account, the vesicles can undergo additional deformation (flattening), which further enhances the adhesive interaction between them. Finally, equilibration of ions and solutes due to the concentration differences created by the osmotic exchange of water can lead to further enhancement of the adhesion energy. Our result of the progressively increasing adhesive interaction energy between vesicles in above regimes could explain why suspensions of very weakly attractive vesicles may undergo flocculation and eventual instability due to separation of vesicles from the suspending fluid by gravity. The possibility of such an instability is an extremely important issue for concentrated vesicle-based products and applications such as fabric softeners, hair therapeutics and drug delivery.

The interactions of supported cationic surfactant bilayers and the effects of nonadsorbing cationic polyelectrolytes on these interactions were studied using the surface forces apparatus (SFA) technique. Bilayers of the cationic surfactant di(tallow ethyl ester) dimethyl ammonium chloride (DEEDMAC) were deposited on mica surfaces using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, and the interactions between the bilayers were measured in various salt, nonionic polymer (PEG), and cationic polyelectrolyte solutions at different polymer molecular weights and concentrations. The forces between the bilayers in CaCl(2) solution are purely repulsive and follow the DLVO theory quantitatively down to bilayer separations of ∼2 nm. Addition of nonadsorbing polymer or polyelectrolyte has a number of effects on the interactions including the induction of a depletion-attraction between the bilayers and screening of the double-layer repulsion due to the added ions in the solution from the polyelectrolyte. The experimental results are shown to agree well with standard theories of depletion attraction and double-layer screening associated with dissolved polyelectrolyte. We also observed significant time and rate effects on measuring the equilibrium bilayer-bilayer interactions possibly due to the unexpectedly long times (>1 min) associated with the charge regulation of the bilayer surfaces. Implications for the interactions and stability of vesicle dispersions, i.e., of free rather than supported bilayers, in polymer solutions are discussed.

We describe two ways to measure normal and/or lateral forces between two surfaces in a surface forces apparatus (SFA) while an electric field is applied between the surfaces. The first method involves depositing thin conductive layers on the exposed substrate (usually mica) sheets; the second involves using the optically reflecting silver layers on the back surfaces of the sheets as the electrodes. Two types of experiments were performed using these new techniques: (1) measuring the effects of an electric field on the rheology of an approximately 40-microm-thick film of zeolite particles suspended in silicone oil and (2) a dynamic study of electric field-induced pattern formation of a thin polymer film. In the first study, under an electric field of strength approximately 106 V/m the shear force or effective viscosity of the colloid suspension was found to be two orders of magnitude higher than in the absence of the field, when the expected bulk value was measured. In the dynamic study, the initially uniform film transformed into a 2-D honeycombed network of depressed cells bounded by elevated ridges that grew slowly with time in a way consistent with previously derived theories. The new techniques should be applicable to studies of other systems and interactions, such as double-layer forces, micro- and nanoelectrorheology, electric field-induced ordering of particles, and the effects of electric fields on adhesion, friction, and lubrication.

Actin protein is a major component of the cell cytoskeleton, and its ability to respond to external forces and generate propulsive forces through the polymerization of filaments is central to many cellular processes. The mechanisms governing actin's abilities are still not fully understood because of the difficulty in observing these processes at a molecular level. Here, we describe a technique for studying actin-surface interactions by using a surface forces apparatus that is able to directly visualize and quantify the collective forces generated when layers of noninterconnected, end-tethered actin filaments are confined between 2 (mica) surfaces. We also identify a force-response mechanism in which filaments not only stiffen under compression, which increases the bending modulus, but more importantly generates opposing forces that are larger than the compressive force. This elastic stiffening mechanism appears to require the presence of confining surfaces, enabling actin filaments to both sense and respond to compressive forces without additional mediating proteins, providing insight into the potential role compressive forces play in many actin and other motor protein-based phenomena.elasticity ͉ mechanotransduction ͉ stiffening ͉ fluctuation and dynamic