Evidence for a discrete charge effect within lipid bilayer membranes.

A high amplitude voltage step technique has been used to meausre the surface density of dipicrylamine anions adsorbed at the surfaces of lipid bilayer membranes. Accompanying low amplitude measurements have determined the relaxation time for transient current flow across the membranes, a parameter governed by the height of the central energy barrier which dipicrylamine anions must cross in moving from one membrane surface to the other. Measured relaxation times and surface charge densities have been related by a quasi-continuum model of the discrete charge effect, which predicts that the membrane central barrier height will increase with increasing density of adsorbed surface charge. The experimentally determined relationship is in satisfactory agreement with the predictions of the model. The model does not provide a complete description of the membrane/solution interface, however, because it cannot be applied to the description of previously measured isotherms for the adsorption of dipicrylamine anions onto bilayer membranes surfaces. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed.