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Stiffness of fluid and gel phase lipid nanovesicles: weighting the contributions of membrane bending modulus and luminal pressurization

View ORCID ProfileAndrea Ridolfi, View ORCID ProfileLucrezia Caselli, Matteo Baldoni, View ORCID ProfileCostanza Montis, Francesco Mercuri, View ORCID ProfileDebora Berti, View ORCID ProfileFrancesco Valle, Marco Brucale
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.17.448831
Andrea Ridolfi
1 Università degli Studi di Firenze;
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  • For correspondence: andrea.ridolfi@ismn.cnr.it
Lucrezia Caselli
1 Università degli Studi di Firenze;
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Matteo Baldoni
2 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, Bologna
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Costanza Montis
1 Università degli Studi di Firenze;
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Francesco Mercuri
2 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, Bologna
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Debora Berti
1 Università degli Studi di Firenze;
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Francesco Valle
2 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, Bologna
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Marco Brucale
2 Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per lo Studio dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, Bologna
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Abstract

The mechanical properties of biogenic membranous compartments are thought to be relevant in numerous biological processes; however, their quantitative measurement remains challenging for most of the already available Force Spectroscopy (FS)-based techniques. In particular, the debate on the mechanics of lipid nanovesicles and on the interpretation of their mechanical response to an applied force is still open. This is mostly due to the current lack of a unified model being able to describe the mechanical response of gel and fluid phase lipid vesicles and to disentangle the contributions of membrane rigidity and luminal pressure. In this framework, we herein propose a simple model in which the contributions of membrane rigidity and luminal pressure to the overall vesicle stiffness are described as a series of springs; this approach allows estimating the two contributions for both gel and fluid phase liposomes. Atomic Force Microscopy-based FS (AFM-FS), performed on both vesicles and Supported Lipid Bilayers (SLBs), is exploited for obtaining all the parameters involved in the model. Moreover, the use of coarse-grained full-scale molecular dynamics simulations allowed for better understanding the differences in the mechanical responses of gel and fluid phase bilayers and supported the experimental findings. Results suggest that the pressure contribution is similar among all the probed vesicle types; however, it plays a dominant role in the mechanical response of lipid nanovesicles presenting a fluid phase membrane, while its contribution becomes comparable to the one of membrane rigidity in nanovesicles with a gel phase lipid membrane. The herein presented results offer a simple way to quantify two of the most important parameters in vesicular nanomechanics, and as such represent a first step towards a currently unavailable, unified model for the mechanical response of gel and fluid phase lipid nanovesicles.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted June 17, 2021.
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Stiffness of fluid and gel phase lipid nanovesicles: weighting the contributions of membrane bending modulus and luminal pressurization
Andrea Ridolfi, Lucrezia Caselli, Matteo Baldoni, Costanza Montis, Francesco Mercuri, Debora Berti, Francesco Valle, Marco Brucale
bioRxiv 2021.06.17.448831; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.17.448831
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Stiffness of fluid and gel phase lipid nanovesicles: weighting the contributions of membrane bending modulus and luminal pressurization
Andrea Ridolfi, Lucrezia Caselli, Matteo Baldoni, Costanza Montis, Francesco Mercuri, Debora Berti, Francesco Valle, Marco Brucale
bioRxiv 2021.06.17.448831; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.17.448831

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