Mechanical Properties of Membranes Composed of Gel-Phase or Fluid-Phase Phospholipids Probed on Liposomes by Atomic Force Spectroscopy

摘要

In many liposome applications, the nano-mechatiical properties of the membrane envelope are essential to ensure, e.g., physical stability, protection, or penetration into tissues. Of all factors, the llipid composition and its phase behavior are susceptible to tune the mechanical properties of membranes. To investigate this, small unilamellar vesicles (SW; diameter < 200 nm), referred to as liposomes, were produced :using either unsaturated 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3phosphocholine (DOPC) or saturated 1,2-dipal-mitoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) in aqueous buffer at pH 6.7.. The respective melting temperatures of these phospholipids were 20 and 41 degrees C. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that at 20 degrees C DOPC was in the fluid phase and DPPC was in the gel phase. After adsorption of the liposomes,onto flat silicon substrates, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to image and probe the mechanical properties of the liposome membrane., The resulting force distance curves were treated using an analytical model based on the shell theory to :yield the Young's modulus (E) and the bending rigidity (k(c)) of the curved membranes. The mechanical investigation showed that DPPC membranes were much stiffer (E = 116 +/- 45 MPa) than those of DOPC = 13 +/- 9 MPa) at 20 degrees C. The study demonstrates that the employed methodology allows discrimination of the respective properties of,gel-or fluid-phase membranes when in the shape of liposomes. It opens perspectives to map the mechanical properties of liposomes containing both fluid and gel phaseS or of biological systems.