Browsing by Author "Catalán López, Rodrigo Esteban"

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    AFM Study of Elastic Module of Physical-Vapor-Deposited Phospholipid Membranes
    (2018) Volkmann, Ulrich Georg; Catalán López, Rodrigo Esteban; Retamal Ponce, María José; Cisternas Fruns, Marcelo Andrés; Moraga Vent, Nicolás Andrés; Díaz Díaz, Diego Ignacio; Corrales, Tomás P.; Pérez-Acle, Tomás; Soto Arriaza, Marco Antonio; Huber, Patrick
    The physical study of artificial phospholipid membranes on solid substrates has become a relevant way to gain insights into the physical behavior of cell membranes. The study of mechanical properties of artificial membranes (lab-made) has become possible with the use of atomic force microscopy. Here, we analyze the Young's modulus and adhesion force of several phospholipidic membranes as a function of temperature using Scanning Force Spectroscopy (SFS). Phospholipids were deposited onto double-polished silicon substrates by physical vapor deposition (PVD), as we have recently reported [1, 2]. We have used Raman spectroscopy to show that the chemical structure of our deposited phospholipid remains unaltered after PVD. After PVD we performed AFM and SFS measurements on the following phospholipids: DPPC, DMPC and DSPC. Measurements using AFM in liquid confirm the self-assembly of the phospholipid bilayer. By using SFS of the deposited membrane in liquid, we observe 2 phase transitions, both in Younǵs Modulus, as well as adhesion channels. The measured phase transitions are consistent with the ripple-gel transition and the gel-liquid crystalline phases. Furthermore, we have studied the frequency dependence of these phase transitions by changing the tip velocity in SFS experiments. Supported by FONDECYT grant # 1141105 (UGV), FONDECYT INICIACION grant # 11160664 (TPC), CONICYT Fellowships (RC and MC), Postdoctoral Fellowship FONDECYT 3160803 (MJR) and CONICYT-PIA ACT 1409. [1] María J. Retamal, Marcelo A. Cisternas, Sebastian E. Gutierrez-Maldonado, Tomas Perez-Acle, Birger Seifert, Mark Busch, Patrick Huber and Ulrich G. Volkmann, J. Chem. Phys. 141, 104201 (2014). [2] María Jose Retamal, Tomas P. Corrales, Marcelo A. Cisternas, Nicolas H. Moraga, Diego I. Diaz, Rodrigo E. Catalan, Birger Seifert, Patrick Huber, and Ulrich G. Volkmann. Biomacromolecules 17 (3), 1142 (2016).
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    Atomic force microscopy study of elastic properties of vapor-phase-deposited lipid membranes
    (2018) Catalán López, Rodrigo Esteban; Volkmann, Ulrich; Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Facultad de Física
    In this work we present a study of phase transitions and their relation with the elastic properties of three phospholipid membranes, namely 1,2-dimyristoyl-snglycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC), 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) and 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC). Samples were generated individually by physical-vapor-deposition of the lipid molecules mentioned over acid-cleaned polished silicon chips. The thickness of the samples were measured with Very High Resolution Ellipsometry. Average thickness are 60˚Athickness on average. The molecular consistency of the lipids were characterized using Raman spectroscopy. The Young’s modulus of the lipid membranes was obtained applying the Hertz model to data acquired with Atomic Force Microscopy in Quantitative Imaging feedback mode. Finally, the individual dependence of these lipids respect to temperature changes was used to detect the main gel-to fluid phase transition.The results in the present work show an expected softening of the lipid membranes just after the main phase transition, although the values of the elastic modulus found do not match the ones reported in the literature. However, the general trends correlate well with the ones found in other works. Nevertheless,systematic investigations using similar conditions as ours are still scarce.The acquisition of information related to the elastic properties and stability of the membranes is relevant for future works on protein insertion, and to understand the lipid membranes dependance on several other environmental conditions like changes in temperature, pH-dependence or ionic strength concentration.