Iakovleva N B, Pasechnik V I
Biofizika. 1983 Nov-Dec;28(6):1026-30.
The estimate of the thickness of the hydrophobic part of biological membranes by means of its formula for plane capacitor leads to a necessity of very high values of protein dielectric permeability. The current estimate can be performed if the membrane possesses a wavy cross-section. Due to the existence of integral proteins which occupy about 1/3 of the bilayer surface and have dielectric permeability epsilon = 6 divided by 8 and also due to some peculiarities of intermembrane electric field the thickness of hydrophobic bilayer region can be estimated from membrane specific capacity as 3 divided by 3.5 nm, this value coincides with X-ray data.