Issue 12, 2010
From the journal:

Soft Matter

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging of lipid mixtures self-assembled on mercury†

Lucia Becucci,*a   Stefano Martinuzzi,a   Emanuela Monetti,a   Raffaella Mercatelli,b   Franco Quercioli,b   Dario Battistelc  and  Rolando Guidellia  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, Florence University, Via della Lastruccia 3, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy
E-mail: lucia.becucci@unifi.it
Fax: (+39) 055-457-3385
Tel: (+39) 055-457-3095

b ISC, Istituto dei Sistemi Complessi del CNR, CNR, Via Madonna del Piano, 10, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy

c Department of Physical Chemistry, Venice University, Calle Larga S. Marta 2137, Venezia, Italy

Abstract

Monolayers and bilayers of lipid mixtures self-assembled on mercury form spontaneously gel-phase (solid ordered, so) and liquid-ordered (lo) microdomains, thanks to the fluidity imparted to these films by the liquid metal support. The differential capacity of the hydrocarbon tail region of monolayers of mixtures of two lipid components of high and low transition temperature Tm, increases during the transition from the liquid disordered (ld) phase to the coexistence of ld and so phases. Addition of cholesterol to this binary mixture causes a decrease in differential capacity. This behavior is explained by regarding the capacity as a measure of the total perimeter of the so microdomains, due to the mismatch between these microdomains and the ld phase. Cholesterol removes this mismatch by converting the anisotropic so microdomains into isotropic lo microdomains (rafts). This allows differential capacity measurements by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to follow phase transitions in lipid mixtures. The coexistance of ld, lo and so phases is confirmed by images of a distal lipid monolayer self-assembled on top of a thiolipid monolayer tethered to a mercury microcap, by using two-photon fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (2P-FLIM).

Graphical abstract: Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging of lipid mixtures self-assembled on mercury

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B923895F
Article type
Paper
Submitted
12 Nov 2009
Accepted
11 Mar 2010
First published
07 May 2010

Soft Matter, 2010,6, 2733-2741

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Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and fluorescence lifetime imaging of lipid mixtures self-assembled on mercury

L. Becucci, S. Martinuzzi, E. Monetti, R. Mercatelli, F. Quercioli, D. Battistel and R. Guidelli, Soft Matter, 2010, 6, 2733 DOI: 10.1039/B923895F

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