Reduction in lateral lipid mobility of lipid bilayer membrane by atmospheric pressure plasma irradiation

Abstract

Plasma medicine is an emerging research field in which various applications of electrical discharge, especially in the form of nonequilibrium plasma at atmospheric pressure, are examined, for example, the application of plasma to biological targets for various purposes such as selective killing of tumor cells and blood stanching. We have focused on the behavior of an artificial cell membrane system at the solid–liquid interface. To evaluate the lateral lipid mobility, we measured the diffusion coefficient of the supported lipid bilayer (SLB) composed of dioleoylphosphatidylcholine with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching by confocal laser scanning microscopy. It was found that the diffusion coefficient was decreased by plasma irradiation and that the diffusion coefficient decreasing rate proceeded with increasing plasma power. We investigated the effects of stimulation with an equilibrium chemical, H2O2, on the SLB and confirmed that the diffusion coefficient did not change at least up to a H2O2 concentration of 5 mM. These results indicate that transient active species generated by plasma play critical roles in the reduction in SLB fluidity. The effects of the two generated major oxidized lipid species, hydroxyl- or hydroperoxy-phosphatidylcholine (PC) and acyl-chain-truncated PCs terminated with aldehyde or carboxyl group, on lateral lipid mobility are discussed.