Visualization of Membrane Loss during the Shrinkage of Giant Vesicles under Electropulsation

Thomas Portet (1, 2, 3) , Franc Camps I Febrer (1) , Jean-Michel Escoffre (1) , Cyril Favard (4) , Marie-Pierre Rols (1) , David S. Dean (2, 3)

1 IPBS - Institut de pharmacologie et de biologie structurale
2 LPT - Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
3 PhyStat - Physique Statistique des Systèmes Complexes (LPT)
4 FRESNEL - Institut FRESNEL

We study the effect of permeabilizing electric fields applied to two different types of giant unilamellar vesicles, the first formed from EggPC lipids and the second formed from DOPC lipids. Experiments on vesicles of both lipid types show a decrease in vesicle radius, which is interpreted as being due to lipid loss during the permeabilization process. We show that the decrease in size can be qualitatively explained as a loss of lipid area, which is proportional to the area of the vesicle that is permeabilized. Three possible modes of membrane loss were directly observed: pore formation, vesicle formation, and tubule formation.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Biochimie, Biologie Moléculaire; Biotechnologies; Biophysique [physics.bio-ph]

Thomas Portet, Franc Camps I Febrer, Jean-Michel Escoffre, Cyril Favard, Marie-Pierre Rols, et al.. Visualization of Membrane Loss during the Shrinkage of Giant Vesicles under Electropulsation. Biophysical Journal, 2009, 96 (10), pp.4109-4121. ⟨10.1016/j.bpj.2009.02.063⟩. ⟨inserm-02439154⟩