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Imaging Membranes by High-Resolution Atomic Force Microscopy

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Membrane Biophysics

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Abstract

The cell membrane (also named plasma membrane) encloses the cell, defines its boundaries, and maintains the essential differences between the cytosol and the extracellular. The atomic force microscope (AFM) is a powerful tool for imaging the structural features of cell membrane in their native state. High-resolution imaging of morphological details demonstrated that the membrane proteins are mainly located on the cytoplasmic side of membranes, and the ectoplasmic side membrane is smooth. As a result, novel models of cell membrane have been proposed. The new progress regarding membrane structure using in situ AFM is discussed here. These AFM-based nanoscale analyses offer exciting opportunities in biophysics and biomedicine.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFA0505300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21525314 2, 1503213, 21703231, 21721003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 5625, Renmin Street, Changchun, Jilin, 130022, People’s Republic of China

    Mingjun Cai, Jing Gao & Hongda Wang

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  1. Mingjun Cai
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  2. Jing Gao
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  3. Hongda Wang
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Correspondence to Hongda Wang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

    Hongda Wang

  2. Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian, Liaoning, China

    Guohui Li

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Cai, M., Gao, J., Wang, H. (2018). Imaging Membranes by High-Resolution Atomic Force Microscopy. In: Wang, H., Li, G. (eds) Membrane Biophysics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6823-2_3

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