Use of irreversible electrical breakdown of lipid bilayers for the study of interaction of membranes with surface active molecules.

Lipid bilayers were formed in the presence of different macromolecules and high electrical fields were used to induce mechanical rupture of the membranes. The kinetics of pore formation during irreversible breakdown was studied as a function of the macromolecules. We observed that macromolecules having a strong binding affinity to the membrane alter the time course of pore formation significantly. We propose this method as a simple test for adsorption of macromolecules to membranes.