Relevance of Hydrodynamic Effects for the Calculation of Outer Surface Potential of Biological Membrane Using Electrophoretic Data

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of a study on the infl uence of hydrodynamic effects on the surface potentials of the erythrocyte membrane, comparing two different models formulated to simulate the electrophoretic movement of a biological cell: the classical Helmholtz-Smoluchowski model and a model presented by Hsu et al. (1996). This model considers hydrodynamic effects to describe the distribution of the fl uid velocity. The electric potential equation was obtained from the non-linear Poisson-Boltzmann equation, considering the spatial distribution of electrical charges fi xed in glycocalyx and cytoplasmic proteins, as well as electrolyte charges and ones fi xed on the surfaces of lipidic bilayer. Our results show that the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski model is not able to refl ect the real forces responsible to the electrophoretic behavior of cell, because it does not take account the hydrodynamic effects of glycocalyx. This charged network that covers cellular surface constitutes a complex physical system whose electromechanical characteristics cannot be neglected. Then, supporting the hypothesis of other authors, we suggest that, in electrophoretic motion analyses of cells, the classical model represents a limiting case of models that take into account hydrodynamic effects to describe the velocity distribution of fl uid.

Bioelectricity, Its Fundamentals, Characterization Methodology, and Applications in Nano‐Bioprobing and Cancer Diagnosis

“…It is worth noting that the hydrodynamic effects of glycocalyx must be considered for accurate electrophoretic behavior of erythrocyte cells. Although there are several models for simulating the electrophoretic movement of cells facing the hydrodynamic environment, optimization is yet to be undertaken when more parameters become available …”