Abstract
A standing wave description of dispersed colloidal particles of cubic lipid-water phases was recently introduced and extended to include cell membranes. Standing wave oscillations of the bilayer is a direct consequence of periodic curvature (two-dimensional crystallinity), with curvature and elastic rigidity controlling frequency, amplitude and wave-length. Only a minor increase in oscillation amplitudes is enough to achieve a transition from standing wave oscillation of a periodically curved bilayer to a bilayer moving between conformation extremes of opposite sign in curvature (passing a cylindrical bilayer lacking periodic curvature). Such a change in wave dynamics is proposed to be involved in the bilayer transition, which results in propagation of the action potential. Consequences of this model in excitation and signal conduction are discussed. This standing wave structure of nerve membranes can explain certain experimental and physiological phenomena, which earlier seemed paradoxical.
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