Poly-L-Lysine Induced Morphology Changes in Mixed Anionic/Zwitterionic and Neat Zwitterionic Supported Phospholipid Bilayers
Tighe A. Spurlin 1 and Andrew A. Gewirth 1*
1 University of Illinois
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: agewirth{at}uiuc.edu.
Submitted on February 1, 2006
Revised on May 24, 2006
Accepted on 5 July 2006
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Abstract |
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Poly-L-lysine induced morphological changes in liquid phase supported bilayers consisting of mixed anionic / zwitterionic and neat zwitterionic headgroup phospholipids were studied with atomic force microscopy and epifluorescence microscopy. Results obtained from these studies indicate that poly-L-lysine can induce domains, defects, and aggregate structures on both mixed bilayers and strictly zwitterionic bilayers. The structures formed on liquid phase supported bilayers were observed to be immobile from a time scale of 50 ms to several minutes. We propose that poly-L-lysine of sufficient length interacts with the mica substrate and phospholipids to create the stationary structures noted.
Key Words:
AFM, DMPC, DOPC, DOPS, DPPC, Fluorescence Microscopy
