Commentary: surface tension of biomembranes

Dynamic tension spectroscopy and strength of biomembranes.

Rupturing fluid membrane vesicles with a steady ramp of micropipette suction produces a distribution of breakage tensions governed by the kinetic process of membrane failure. When plotted as a function of log(tension loading rate), the locations of distribution peaks define a dynamic tension spectrum with distinct regimes that reflect passage of prominent energy barriers along the kinetic pathw...

Protein-mediated surface structuring in biomembranes.

The lipids and proteins of biomembranes exhibit highly dissimilar conformations, geometrical shapes, amphipathicity, and thermodynamic properties which constrain their two-dimensional molecular packing, electrostatics, and interaction preferences. This causes inevitable development of large local tensions that frequently relax into phase or compositional immiscibility along lateral and transver...

Surface Tension of Serum

An attempt was made to apply to the study of immune sera the fact, pointed out in our previous papers, that at a given dilution the serum shows a maximum drop of surface tension in function of time (time-drop). The results of the experiments here reported would seem to indicate that: 1. The time-drop of a serum solution is greater after the animal has been immunized than before immunization (fr...

Surface Tension of Serum

As stated in previous papers, 1-4 the four essential conditions under which the presence of antibodies in immune serum can be detected and followed by means of what might be termed the tensiometric method are: first, the dilution of the serum to 1:10,000; second, the use of strictly clean vessels; third, the care in handling the solutions, which must absolutely not be disturbed between the two ...

Prediction of Surface Tension in Single and Mixed Electrolyte Solutions