New optical method for measuring the bending elasticity of lipid bilayers

Minetti, Christophe; Vitkova, Victoria; Dubois, Frank; Bivas, I.

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/682/1/012031

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…21 Several such techniques have already been applied to model membranes. Variants of digital holographic microscopy have been used to measure lipid bilayer bending elasticity in unilamellar vesicles 22 and image-coexisting lipid phases in multilamellar bilayer stacks, 23 for example, and other forms of quantitative phase microscopy have been used to measure changes in cell membrane potential, 21 tension and bending modulus, 24 and ATP-induced changes in erythrocyte membranes. 25 Quantitative differential interference contrast (qDIC) is a form of quantitative phase imaging.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lipid Bilayer Thickness Measured by Quantitative DIC Reveals Phase Transitions and Effects of Substrate Hydrophilicity

et al. 2019

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Quantitative differential interference contrast microscopy is demonstrated here as a label-free method, which is able to image and measure the thickness of lipid bilayers with 0.1 nm precision. We investigate the influence of the substrate on the thickness of fluid-phase 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC)-supported lipid bilayers and find a thinning of up to 10%, depending on substrate hydrophilicity, local bilayer coverage, and ionic strength of the medium. With fluorescently labeled lipid bilayers, we also observe changes in the bilayer thickness depending on the choice of fluorophore. Furthermore, liquid-ordered domains in bilayers, formed from DOPC, cholesterol, and sphingomyelin, are measured, and the corresponding thickness change between the liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered phases is accurately determined. Again, the thickness difference is found to be dependent on the presence of the fluorophore label, highlighting the need for quantitative label-free techniques.

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