Abstract
Here we report the results of shear-mode thicknesses and absorption coefficient measurements made on neat membranes using scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM). Biomimic neat membranes composed of two different types of phoshpholipid molecules: 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and 1,2- dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) were found to exhibit different absorption coefficients under the SNOM. The localization of the lipids could be identified and correlated to the morphology of the membrane domains indicating that SNOM can be an effective and accurate approach for the label-free characterization of the structure-function relationships in cell membranes.
Highlights
The biological membrane defines the boundaries of a cell by forming a physical barrier between the biochemical machinery of cellular processes and the outside world
The main transition temperature of DPPC is reported as 41.3°C, and it is in gel phase (L_β) at room and it is in gel phase (L_β) at room temperature [38,39]
The DOPC and DPPC-based phospholipid membranes exhibited characteristically different near-field absorption coefficients that may be explained in terms of the packing order of the hydrocarbon chains
Summary
The biological membrane defines the boundaries of a cell by forming a physical barrier between the biochemical machinery of cellular processes and the outside world It has a highly heterogeneous structure, composed of many different types of lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates [1,2,3,4]. Phospholipid bilayer membranes exhibit a complex phase behaviour that is most frequently compared to liquid crystals; in each phase, constraints are imposed on lipid packing, yet the lipid molecules retain substantial lateral mobility [13,14,15] This lateral mobility allows the spontaneous segregation of lipids into domains of different composition that are in dynamic equilibrium [15]
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