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Some Electrical Properties of Bimolecular Phosphatidyl Inositol Membranes

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Abstract

THE formation of “black”, bimolecular lipid membranes in aqueous solutions was first reported by Mueller et al.1 in 1962 and has since been investigated by several research groups2–7. Most of the work has been carried out with phosphatidyl choline (lecithin) from natural sources, although “black” films could also be obtained with diglycerides5, sphingomyelin7 and synthetic dioleyl phosphatidyl choline7. A common property of all these compounds is that the net charge of the molecule is zero. It is of interest that several types of negatively charged lipids, for example, phosphatidyl serine or phosphatidyl inositol, are found in cell membranes. Because of speculations on the biological functions of these lipids8 it was of interest to investigate the electrical properties of artificial bimolecular membranes bearing negatively charged groups.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physical Chemistry, University of Basle, Switzerland

    W. LESSLAUER, J. RICHTER & P. LÄUGER

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  1. W. LESSLAUER
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  2. J. RICHTER
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  3. P. LÄUGER
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LESSLAUER, W., RICHTER, J. & LÄUGER, P. Some Electrical Properties of Bimolecular Phosphatidyl Inositol Membranes. Nature 213, 1224–1226 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/2131224a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2131224a0

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