Variations between the inner and outer leaflets of cell membranes are crucial for cell functioning and signaling, drug-membrane interactions, and the formation of lipid domains. Transmembrane asymmetry can in principle be comprised of an asymmetric charge distribution, differences in hydration, specific head group/H-bonding interactions or a difference in the number of lipids per leaflet. Here, we show how nonlinear light scattering methods such as sum frequency scattering and polarimetric angle-resolved second harmonic scattering can be used to probe the molecular structure of the lipids, the membrane hydration and the interfacial electrostatic potential of liposome membranes in aqueous solutions. We present studies of single lipid and mixed liposomes as examples. We also show how high throughput wide field second harmonic imaging can be used to image the membrane hydration asymmetry with 400 nm spatial and &lt; 200 ms temporal resolution.

Lipid membranes probed label-free with nonlinear light scattering and imaging: Direct probes of surface chemistry

256th National Meeting (2018)

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