Abstract
Electrorotation (ER) is a technique allowing the characterization of the surface properties of a variety of supra-molecular aggregates and living cultured cells as well as cellular organelles and biological materials in general. In particular, this technique allows measuring two important physical parameters of the cell membrane: specific capacitance and specific conductance. These parameters are strictly related to the structure/function relationships of the biological membrane; ER becomes thus a powerful means to investigate a number of phenomena involving the membrane integrity. These phenomena may originate from treatments with exogenous molecules and/or from pathological effects. Concerning these aspects, the study of the transfer of exogenous material (i.e. cat-anionic vesicles or liposomes) across the cell membrane assumes a high importance. This review is focused on the physical functioning principles of ER and on the quantitative analysis of the experimental measurements. This work also reports on different fields of application of ER with particular reference to data obtained in our laboratory. The investigation of the alterations of the cytoplasmic membrane function, as evidenced by this strategy, will be illustrated in detail.
Highlights
The cytoplasmic membrane represents the bio-molecular structure allowing the cytoplasm matrix to communi-How to cite this paper: Bonincontro, A. and Risuleo, G. (2015) Electrorotation: A Spectroscopic Imaging Approach to Study the Alterations of the Cytoplasmic Membrane
Investigating the integrity and efficiency of the plasma membrane becomes of primary importance: with respect to this, electrorotation represents an excellent tool giving a quantitative idea about the intra-membrane traffic and possible membrane damages
Since ER allows measuring the two essential parameters of the cell membrane, it constitutes a powerful means to investigate a number of phenomena related to the membrane integrity
Summary
How to cite this paper: Bonincontro, A. and Risuleo, G. (2015) Electrorotation: A Spectroscopic Imaging Approach to Study the Alterations of the Cytoplasmic Membrane. Investigating the integrity and efficiency of the plasma membrane becomes of primary importance: with respect to this, electrorotation represents an excellent tool giving a quantitative idea about the intra-membrane traffic and possible membrane damages. This technique permits, the characterization of the surface properties of a variety of supra-molecular aggregates in the micrometric size range. Since ER allows measuring the two essential parameters of the cell membrane (specific capacitance and conductance), it constitutes a powerful means to investigate a number of phenomena related to the membrane integrity Considering this particular aspect, it should be pointed out that these parameters are strictly linked to the structure/function relationships of the biological membrane. Prior to the electrorotational measurements the cells were trypsinized to detach them from the Petri dish
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