The study of water permeability can been used to foster a deeper understanding of the process of homeostasis, which is responsible for the maintenance of stable physiological conditions in the human body. However, the lipid bilayer that compose biological membranes is extremely complex. Our research uses a droplet interface bilayer (DIB) to effectively model the complex biological membrane through the contact of aqueous microdroplets in an oil solvent containing lipids that first form monolayers, and subsequently form a bilayer when they are brought together. To drive water transport across the DIB, one aqueous microdroplet contains pure water, and the other contains a small amount of salt to create a concentration gradient between the droplets. Our research has employed the use of multiple different salts in order to understand the effect of the salt composition on water movement. Our work demonstrates that water permeability of the same membrane has been shown to be affected by the salt composition. This indicates an important specific interaction of various ions on the membrane. Possible explanations for the observed effects, including binding of certain ions to the headgroup of the lipid will be explored.

Tuning of membrane permeability via various ion interactions

250th National Meeting (2015)

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