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Nanomechanical properties of cholesterol-rich domains in mica-supported unsaturated lipid bilayer: an atomic force microscopy study

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Abstract

The cell membrane undergoes various changes to modify its composition and mechanical properties to control the functioning of cellular mechanisms, in which cholesterol is highly involved. We have investigated the formation of cholesterol-rich nano-domains in pure 1, 2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) solid-supported lipid bilayer (SLB) at room temperature. The mechanical properties of the lipid bilayer in the presence of 0 to 40 mol% of cholesterol have been explored by using Peak-Force Quantitative Nano-Mechanical Atomic Force Microscopy. Cholesterol-rich domains with different mechanical strengths are distinctly observed at 5% cholesterol in SLB of DOPC-cholesterol. The cholesterol-rich domains with increased height are observed up to 25% cholesterol insertion within the bilayer. Further increase of cholesterol concentration leads to shrinkage of bilayer height and moderate rise of rigidity modulus. We believe that the reduction of bilayer height is due to the decoupling of the two leaflets within the membrane at high cholesterol concentration.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been financially supported by the DBT funded Research Project (BT/PR8475/BRB/10/1248/2013). We are grateful to VECC Kolkata, DAE, Government of India, for providing AFM Facility to carry out the research. We would like to acknowledge Pabitra Maity and Animesh Halder for their help during vesicle preparation and dynamic light-scattering measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soft Matter and Biophysics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 700032, India

    Amrita Basu & Sanat Karmakar

  2. Ion Beam Development and Application Section, RIB Group, Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Kolkata, 700064, India

    Prasanta Karmakar

Authors
  1. Amrita Basu
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  2. Prasanta Karmakar
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  3. Sanat Karmakar
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Correspondence to Sanat Karmakar.

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Basu, A., Karmakar, P. & Karmakar, S. Nanomechanical properties of cholesterol-rich domains in mica-supported unsaturated lipid bilayer: an atomic force microscopy study. Bull Mater Sci 46, 152 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-023-02986-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-023-02986-4

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