Characterizing stability properties of supported bilayer membranes on nanoglassified substrates using surface plasmon resonance.

Supported bilayer membranes (SBMs) formed on solid substrates, in particular glass, provide an ideal cell mimicking model system that has been found to be highly useful for biosensing applications. Although the stability of the membrane structures is known to determine the applicability, the subject has not been extensively investigated, largely because of the lack of convenient methods to monitor changes of membrane properties on glass in real time. This work reports the evaluation of the stability properties of a series of SBMs against chemical and air damage by use of surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and nanoglassified gold substrates. Seven SBMs composed of phosphatidylcholine and DOPC+, including single-component, mixed, protein-reinforced SBMs (rSBMs) and protein-tethered bilayer membranes (ptBLMs), are studied. The stability properties under various conditions, especially the effects of surfactants, organic solvents, and dehydration damage on the bilayers, are compared. PC membranes are found to be easily removed from the glassy surfaces using relatively low concentrations of the surfactants, while DOPC+ is markedly more stable toward nonionic surfactant. DOPC+ membranes also demonstrated remarkable air stability while PC films exhibited considerable damage from dehydration. Doping of cholesterol does not improve PC's stability against SDS and Triton but changes the lipid membrane packing enough to protect against dehydration damage. Although rSBMs and ptBLMs improve air stability to a certain degree, they are still quite susceptible to significant damage/removal from ionic and nonionic surfactants at lower concentrations. Overall, DOPC+ has noted higher stability on glass, likely due to the favorable electrostatic interaction between the silicate surface and the lipid headgroup, making it a good candidate for application. Nanoglassy SPR proves to be an attractive platform capable of rapidly screening film stability in real-time, providing critical information for future work using supported membranes for sensing applications.