Propagation of a Thermo-mechanical Perturbation on a Lipid Membrane

2017/05/16 by M.I. Pérez-Camacho, Perez-Camacho, M. I., JC Ruiz-Suarez +1 · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #Spectroscopy and Quantum Chemical Studies

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1705.05811

openalex publication_date 2017/05/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The propagation of sound waves on lipid monolayers supported on water has been studied during the melting transition. Since changes in volume, area, and compressibility in lipid membranes have biological relevance, the observed sound propagation is of paramount importance. However, it is unknown what would occur on a lipid bilayer, which is a more approximate model of a cell membrane. With the aim to answer this relevant question, we built an experimental setup to assemble long artificial lipid membranes. We found that if these membranes are heated in order to force local melting, a thermo-mechanical perturbation propagates a long distance. Our findings may support the existence of solitary waves, postulated to explain the propagation of isentropic signals together with the action potential in neurons.

Citations

• A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve

Cited by

• Lambert W-kink Solitons Arising from Higher-Order Nonlinearities of Lipid Membranes

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