Dresden 2017 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 48: Membranes and Vesicles II
BP 48.2: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 23. März 2017, 10:00–10:15, HÜL 386
Optical control of membrane permeability and fluidity with synthetic photoswitchable phospholipid molecules — •Stefanie Pritzl1, Patrick Urban1, James Frank2, Carla Pernpeintner1, Dirk Trauner2, and Theobald Lohmüller1 — 1Chair for Photonics and Optoelectronics, Physics Department and CeNS, LMU Munich — 2Department of Chemistry and CiPSM, LMU Munich
Phospholipid bilayer membranes are almost impermeable for ions or small substances while individual lipids and other membrane components within the bilayer sheet display a high level of lateral mobility. In our work, we devised a strategy to control both membrane permeability and fluidity with light by using photoswitchable phospholipid molecules embedded in an artificial bilayer membrane. These photolipids contain an azobenzene group in one of the hydrocarbon chains that undergoes photoisomerization upon irradiation with blue and UV light. The effect of photoswitching on membrane properties was tested by patch-clamp measurements on free-standing lipid membranes and by fluorescence methods. We observed a fast and reversible switching of membrane currents upon light activation, while membrane fluidity and lipid diffusion could be altered by a factor of two. These results highlight a new principle for controlling membrane properties on fast time scales, which are important for applications in cell signaling and drug delivery.