The thermodynamics of lipid ion channel formation in the absence and presence of anesthetics. BLM experiments and simulations

Abstract

It is known that lipid membranes become permeable in their melting regime. In microscopic conductance measurements on black lipid membranes one finds that conduction takes place via quantized events closely resembling those reported for protein ion channels. Here, we present data of ion currents through black lipid membranes in the presence and absence of the anesthetics octanol and ethanol, and compare them to a statistical thermodynamics model using parameters that are obtained from experimental calorimetric data. The conductance steps in pure lipid membrane suggest aqueous pores with the size of approximately one lipid cross-section. We model the permeability by assuming empty sites of the size of one lipid. We find that pore formation in the melting transition regime is facilitated by the increase of the lateral compressibility that expresses itself in the area fluctuations. Thus, pore formation is related to critical opalescence in two dimensions. Anesthetics alter the permeability by affecting the thermodynamic state of the membrane and by shifting the heat capacity profiles.

11 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (3)

• The temperature dependence of lipid membrane permeability, its quantized nature, and the influence of anesthetics
• The thermodynamics of general anesthesia
• Phase state dependent current fluctuations in pure lipid membranes

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Lipid Ion Channels
• Melting transitions in biomembranes
• Voltage-gated lipid ion channels
• Stabilizing membrane domains antagonizes n-alcohol anesthesia
• Comparing ion conductance recordings of synthetic lipid bilayers with cell membranes containing TRP channels
• Ion-channel-like behavior in lipid bilayer membranes at the melting transition
• The excitable fluid mosaic
• Nonlinear conductance, rectification and mechanosensitive channel formation of lipid membranes