What you can learn from electrocuting vesicles
Electric fields have emerged as a powerful tool for cell manipulation in biomedical and biotechnological applications such as tissue ablation, wound healing, and cancer treatment. Strong electric fields can cause electroporation and fusion. Vesicle poration can be used to measure pore edge tension, fuse vesicles as microreactors, collapse charged membranes and crack-open gel ones. Deformation and response of vesicles to AC fields can be used to assess, among others, the membrane shear surface viscosity, bending rigidity, capacitance…
| Some reviews: |
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 Assessing membrane material properties from the response of giant unilamellar vesicles to electric fields, M. Aleksanyan, H.A. Faizi, M.-A. Kirmpaki, P.M. Vlahovska, K.A. Riske and R. Dimova, Adv. Phys.: X, 8, 2125342 (2023) [PDF] |
| Using electric fields to assess membrane material properties in giant unilamellar vesicles, R. Dimova and K. A. Riske, in The Giant Vesicle Book, edited by R. Dimova, C. Marques, CRC Press, pp. 347-364 (2019) DOI: 10.1201/9781315152516 |
| Membrane Electroporation in High Electric Fields, R. Dimova, in Advances in Electrochemical Science and Engineering: Bioelectrochemistry, edited by R. C. Alkire, D. M. Kolb, J. Lipkowski, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Editon edn., vol. 13, pp. 335-367 (2011) DOI: 10.1002/9783527644117.ch7 |
| Vesicles in electric fields: Some novel aspects of membrane behavior, R. Dimova, N. Bezlyepkina, M. D. Jordö, R. L. Knorr, K. A. Riske, M. Staykova, P. M. Vlahovska, T. Yamamoto, P. Yang, and R. Lipowsky, Soft Matter, 5, 3201-3212 (2009) [PDF] |
| Giant vesicles in electric fields, R. Dimova, K. A. Riske, S. Aranda, N. Bezlyepkina, R. L. Knorr and R. Lipowsky, Soft Matter, 3, 817-927 (2007) [PDF] |
Highlights
| PoET: automated approach for measuring pore edge tension in giant unilamellar vesicles, F.S.C. Leomil, M. Zocoler, R. Dimova and K.A. Riske, Bioinformatics Advances vol. 1, vbab037 (2021) [PDF] DOI: 10.1093/bioadv/vbab037 |  |
| To close or to collapse: the role of charges on membrane stability upon pore formation, R.B. Lira, F.S.C. Leomil, R.J. Melo, K.A Riske and R. Dimova, Adv. Sci., 8, 2004068 (2021) [PDF] DOI: 10.1002/advs.202004068 | |