Use of microsphere-supported phospholipid membranes for analysis of protein-lipid interactions.

Many proteins bind to phospholipid membranes in order to gain or modify function. As an example, blood coagulation proteins must bind to phosphatidylserine-containing membranes in order to gain procoagulant activity. The flow cytometry approaches described in this unit provide versatile assays for equilibrium and kinetic binding studies to measure essential membrane-binding properties. These assays are rapid, require only small quantities of the protein of interest, and can evaluate binding interactions in complex, physiological mixtures, including blood plasma and tissue culture media.