Evidence of Conducting Hydrophobic Nanopores Across Membranes in Response to an Electric Field
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- 作者：Fran莽ois Dehez ; Lucie Delemotte ; Peter Kramar ; Damijan Miklav膷i膷 ; Mounir Tarek
- 刊名：Journal of Physical Chemistry C
- 出版年：2014
- 出版时间：April 3, 2014
- 年：2014
- 卷：118
- 期：13
- 页码：6752-6757
- 全文大小：324K
- 年卷期：v.118,no.13(April 3, 2014)
- ISSN：1932-7455
文摘
Electroporation, the application of electric fields to alter the permeability of biological membranes, has recently become a clinical tool for the electrochemotherapy treatment of various cancers. Current electroporation theory assumes that the membrane is permeabilized through the formation of conducting hydrophilic pores, stabilized by rearrangement of lipid head groups. Here we have performed molecular dynamics simulations of negatively charged lipid bilayers subject to high transmembrane voltages together with electroporation experiments on planar bilayers. Our data reveal a hitherto unknown electroporation process in which large ion-conducting water columns not stabilized by lipid head groups are formed within the bilayer鈥檚 hydrophobic core. The existence of such hydrophobic pores challenges the standard theoretical description of pore creation in lipid membranes. Our findings open a new vista toward fine-tuning of electroporation-based treatments and biotechnical applications, and, in general, for enhancing the import of various substrates in liposomes or cells.