| Issue |
EPL
Volume 80, Number 4, November 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 48002 | |
| Number of page(s) | 6 | |
| Section | Interdisciplinary Physics and Related Areas of Science and Technology | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/80/48002 | |
| Published online | 10 October 2007 | |
Unbinding of lipid bilayers induced by osmotic pressure in relation to unilamellar vesicle formation
1
Institute of Materials Structure Science, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization - Oho, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0801, Japan
2
Department of Physics, Kyoto University - Kitashirakawa-oiwake-cho, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan
3
Department of Chemistry for Materials, Mie University - Kurimamachiya-cho, Tsu, Mie, 514-8507, Japan
Corresponding author: yamadan@post.kek.jp
Received:
12
March
2007
Accepted:
13
September
2007
Small-angle X-ray scattering and phase-contrast microscopy experiments were performed to investigate the effect of osmotic pressure on vesicle formation in a dioleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DOPC)/water/NaI system. The multi-lamellar structure of lipid bilayers is unstabilized when a lipid film with a sufficient amount of NaI is hydrated by pure water. It has been confirmed that this phenomenon is due to the effect of osmotic pressure induced by a hetero- geneous distribution of NaI molecules. This could be the origin of the unbinding of lipid bilayers to conform large uni-lamellar vesicles.
PACS: 87.14.Cc – Lipids / 87.16.Dg – Membranes, bilayers, and vesicles / 61.10.Eq – X-ray scattering (including small-angle scattering)
© Europhysics Letters Association, 2007
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