Energetics of lipid bilayers with applications to deformations induced by inclusions

De Vita, R. and Stewart, Iain W. (2013) Energetics of lipid bilayers with applications to deformations induced by inclusions. Soft Matter, 9. pp. 2056-2068. ISSN 1744-6848

[thumbnail of Energetics of lipid bilayers with applications to deformations induced by inclusions PrePrint] PDF (Energetics of lipid bilayers with applications to deformations induced by inclusions PrePrint)
paper_revised.pdf
Preprint
Download (1MB)

    Abstract

    A new energy for the description of large deformations of lipid bilayers is formulated with mathematical rigor. This energy is derived by considering the smectic A liquid crystalline nature of lipid bilayers and the coupling between the deformations of the layers and their constituent lipid molecules. Analogies between smectic A liquid crystals, with an infinite number of layers, and lipid bilayers, with a finite number of layers, are further discussed. The novelty of the energy density is demonstrated by studying the large deformations of planar lipid bilayers induced by cylindrical inclusions. The results of this study are directly compared with the results obtained using May's theoretical framework [May, Eur. Biophys. J., 2000, 29, 17–28] in which small deformations are assumed. As expected, the proposed energy density predicts larger distortions of the lipid molecules and deformations of the lipid bilayers close to an inclusion.

    ORCID iDs

    De Vita, R. and Stewart, Iain W. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4374-9842;
    • Item type:Article
      ID code:46514
      Dates:
      Date
      Event
      2013
      Published
      3 January 2013
      Published Online
      Keywords:lipid bilayers, smectic A liquid crystals, cylindrical inclusions, Physics, Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
      Subjects:Science > Physics
      Department:Faculty of Science > Mathematics and Statistics
      Depositing user: Pure Administrator
      Date deposited:20 Jan 2014 16:47
      Last modified:23 Sep 2021 04:27
      Related URLs:
      URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/46514
    CORE (COnnecting REpositories)