Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Lipid bilayers are large enough structures to have some of the mechanical properties of liquids or solids. The area compression modulus K a, bending modulus K b, and edge energy , can be used to describe them. Solid lipid bilayers also have a shear modulus, but like any liquid, the shear modulus is zero for fluid bilayers. These mechanical ...
Lipid bilayer budding is a commonplace phenomenon in living cells and relates to the transport of metabolites in the form of vesicles. During this process, a lipid bilayer is subject to internal hydrostatic stresses, in combination with strain restrictions along a bilayer surface, this can lead to elongation of areas of the lipid bilayer by ...
Lipid bilayer characterization is the use of various optical, chemical and physical probing methods to study the properties of lipid bilayers. Many of these techniques are elaborate and require expensive equipment because the fundamental nature of the lipid bilayer makes it a very difficult structure to study. An individual bilayer, since it is ...
In colloidal chemistry, one property of a lipid bilayer is the relative mobility (fluidity) of the individual lipid molecules and how this mobility changes with temperature. This response is known as the phase behavior of the bilayer. Broadly, at a given temperature a lipid bilayer can exist in either a liquid or a solid phase.
The interactions of lipids, especially the hydrophobic tails, determine the lipid bilayer physical properties such as fluidity. Membranes in cells typically define enclosed spaces or compartments in which cells may maintain a chemical or biochemical environment that differs from the outside.
Membrane lipids are a group of compounds (structurally similar to fats and oils) which form the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane. The three major classes of membrane lipids are phospholipids, glycolipids, and cholesterol. Lipids are amphiphilic: they have one end that is soluble in water ('polar') and an ending that is soluble in fat ...
These specific properties allow phospholipids to play an important role in the cell membrane. Their movement can be described by the fluid mosaic model , which describes the membrane as a mosaic of lipid molecules that act as a solvent for all the substances and proteins within it, so proteins and lipid molecules are then free to diffuse ...
The bilayer is formed across this hole, separating the two chambers. The electrical properties of the bilayer can be measured by putting an electrode into each side of the chamber. The earliest model bilayer system developed was the “painted” bilayer, also known as a “black lipid membrane.”