Freeman E C, Najem J S, Sukharev S, Philen M K, Leo D J
College of Engineering, University of Georgia, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech, USA.
Soft Matter. 2016 Mar 28;12(12):3021-31. doi: 10.1039/c5sm02779a.
Mechanotransduction and interfacial properties in unsupported liquid biomimetic membranes are explored using the droplet-interface bilayer technique. The fluidic monolayer-membrane system afforded by this technique allows for dynamic control over the membrane dimensions and curvature, which under periodic deformations generates capacitive currents (akin to a Kelvin probe), and permits a detailed electrostatic characterization of the boundary layers as well as observation of flexoelectric effects. Both high and low displacement frequency regimes are examined, and the results show that the mechanoelectric signals generated by the membranes may be linked to the membrane electrostatic structure. In addition, we show that periodic membrane bending in a high-frequency regime generates tension sufficient to activate reconstituted mechanosensitive channels.
利用液滴界面双层技术探索了无支撑液体仿生膜中的机械转导和界面特性。该技术提供的流体单层膜系统允许对膜的尺寸和曲率进行动态控制，在周期性变形下会产生电容电流（类似于开尔文探针），并允许对边界层进行详细的静电表征以及观察挠曲电效应。研究了高位移频率和低位移频率两种情况，结果表明膜产生的机电信号可能与膜的静电结构有关。此外，我们还表明，在高频状态下周期性的膜弯曲会产生足以激活重组机械敏感通道的张力。
