USE OF INTERNATIONALISMS MOTIVATED BY GREEK ROOT MORPHEME `НАЕМАТ` IN MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY (SECOND COMMUNICATION)

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USE OF INTERNATIONALISMS MOTIVATED BY GREEK ROOT MORPHEME `НАЕМАТ` IN MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY (FIRST COMMUNICATION)

No abstrac

Prediction of sanding in subsurface hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Sand production in oil and gas wells can occur if the fluid velocity exceeds a certain value. Due to drilling operations, the mechanical stresses can exceed the load bearing capacity of the rock. As the local stresses exceed certain level, a certain amount of rock is fractured into sand. Then, the sand is carried by the fluid through the wellbore depending on the flow rate. The amount of the solids can be less than a few grams per cubic meter of reservoir fluid or an essential amount. In the later case erosion of the rock and removing sufficient quantities of rock can occur. This can produce subsurface cavities which collapse and destroy the well. When sanding is unavoidable it is necessary to estimate the characteristics of the process. Our aim was to generate a simple one-dimensional local model, which predicts the volume of sanding, the radius and the porosity of the yielded zone. Such model will help the company in the development of complex 3D models

Solution asymmetry and salt expand fluid-fluid coexistence regions of charged membranes

Liquid-liquid phase separation in giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) leads to the formation of intramembrane domains. To mimic charged biological membranes, we studied phase separation and domain formation in \GUVs\} of ternary lipid mixtures composed of egg sphingomyelin, cholesterol, and the negatively charged lipid dioleoylphosphatidylglycerol. The \{GUVs\} were exposed to solutions of sucrose and high-saline buffer. The phase diagram was determined using epifluorescence microscopy for vesicle populations with symmetric and asymmetric solution compositions across the membranes. Trans-membrane solution asymmetry was found to affect the membrane phase state. Furthermore, compared to the case of salt-free conditions, the phase diagram in the presence of high-saline buffer (both symmetrically or asymmetrically present across the membrane) was found to exhibit a significantly extended region of liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered coexistence. These observations were confirmed on single \{GUVs\ using microfluidics and confocal microscopy. Moreover, we found that the miscibility temperatures markedly increased for vesicles in the presence of symmetric and asymmetric salt solutions. Our results demonstrate a substantial effect of salt and solution asymmetry on the phase behavior of charged membranes, which has direct implications for protein adsorption onto these membranes and for the repartitioning of proteins within the membrane domains

From supported membranes to tethered vesicles: lipid bilayers destabilisation at the main transition

We report results concerning the destabilisation of supported phospholipid bilayers in a well-defined geometry. When heating up supported phospholipid membranes deposited on highly hydrophilic glass slides from room temperature (i.e. with lipids in the gel phase), unbinding was observed around the main gel to fluid transition temperature of the lipids. It lead to the formation of relatively monodisperse vesicles, of which most remained tethered to the supported bilayer. We interpret these observations in terms of a sharp decrease of the bending rigidity modulus $\kappa$ in the transition region, combined with a weak initial adhesion energy. On the basis of scaling arguments, we show that our experimental findings are consistent with this hypothesis.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Controlled adhesion, membrane pinning and vesicle transport by Janus particles

The interactions between biomembranes and particles are key to many applications, but the lack of controllable model systems to study them limits the progress in their research. Here, we describe how Janus polystyrene microparticles, half coated with iron, can be partially engulfed by artificial cells, namely giant vesicles, with the goals to control and investigate their adhesion and degree of encapsulation. The interaction between the Janus particles and these model cell membrane systems is mediated by electrostatic charge, offering a further mode of modulation in addition to the iron patches. The ferromagnetic particle coatings also enable the ability to manipulate and transport the vesicles by magnetic fields

Super-resolution imaging of highly curved membrane structures in giant vesicles encapsulating molecular condensates

Molecular crowding is an inherent feature of the cell interior. Synthetic cells as provided by giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) encapsulating macromolecules (polyethylene-glycol and dextran) represent an excellent mimetic system to study membrane transformations associated with molecular crowding and protein condensation. Similarly to cells, such GUVs loaded with macromolecules exhibit highly curved structures such as internal nanotubes. In addition, upon liquid-liquid phase separation as inside living cells, the membrane of GUVs encapsulating an aqueous two-phase system deforms to form apparent kinks at the contact line of the interface between the two aqueous phases. These structures, nanotubes and kinks, have dimensions below optical resolution and if resolved, can provide information about material properties such as membrane spontaneous curvature and intrinsic contact angle describing the wettability contrast of the encapsulated phases to the membrane. Previous experimental studies were based on conventional optical microscopy which cannot resolve these membrane and wetting properties. Here, we studied these structures with super-resolution microscopy, namely stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, together with microfluidic manipulation. We demonstrate the cylindrical nature of the nanotubes with unprecedented detail based on the superior resolution of STED and automated data analysis. The spontaneous curvature deduced from the nanotube diameters is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. Furthermore, we were able to resolve the membrane “kink” structure as a smoothly curved membrane demonstrating the existence of the intrinsic contact angle. We find very good agreement between the directly measured values and the theoretically predicted ones based on the apparent contact angles on the micrometer scale. During different stages of cellular events, biomembranes undergo a variety of shape transformations such as the formation of buds and nanotubes regulated by membrane necks. We demonstrate that these highly curved membrane structures are amenable to STED imaging and show that such studies provide important insights in the membrane properties and interactions underlying cellular activities