Formation of pit-spanning phospholipid bilayers on nanostructured silicon dioxide surfaces for studying biological membrane events

Zwitterionic phospholipid vesicles are known to adsorb and ultimately rupture on flat silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) surfaces to form supported lipid bilayers. Surface topography, however, alters the kinetics and mechanistic details of vesicles adsorption, which under certain conditions may be exploited to form a suspended bilayer. Here we describe the use of nanostructured SiO 2 surfaces prepared by the colloidal lithography technique to scrutinize the formation of suspended 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3- phosphocholine (POPC) lipid bilayers from a solution of small unilamellar lipid vesicles (SUV s ). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) were employed to characterize nanostructure fabrication and lipid bilayer assembly on the surface. \ua9 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York