Electro-deformation and poration of giant vesicles viewed with high temporal resolution.

ABSTRACT: Fast digital imaging was used to study the deformation and poration of giant unilamellar vesicles subjected to electric pulses. For the first time the dynamics of response and relaxation of the membrane at micron-scale level is revealed at a time resolution of 30 micros. Above a critical transmembrane potential the lipid bilayer ruptures. Formation of macropores (diameter approximately 2 microm) with pore lifetime of approximately 10 ms has been detected. The pore lifetime has been interpreted as interplay between the pore edge tension and the membrane viscosity. The reported data, covering six decades of time, show the following regimes in the relaxation dynamics of the membrane. Tensed vesicles first relax to release the acquired stress due to stretching, approximately 100 micros. In the

SUBMITTER: Riske KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1305119 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature