Electrostatic forces control the penetration of membranes by charged solutes.

Using fluorescent, anionic dyes such as carboxyfluorescein as model solutes, it is shown that the forces allowing such solutes to be retained within sealed lipid vesicles, against a large concentration gradient, can be primarily electrostatic in nature. At temperatures distant from that of the ordered-fluid lipid phase transition a small number of the anionic dye molecules trapped within lipid vesicles are capable of traversing the lipid bilayer and establishing an electrical diffusion potential across the membrane. Further solute movement can then only occur with the concomitant permeation of ions which restore electrical balance. A significant flux of dye can be triggered by (a) increasing the permeability of the membrane to ions (for example by the addition of ionophores such as gramicidin, or by allowing the lipid to approach a phase transition) or by (b) adding lipophilic counterions such as tetraphenylborate or dinitrophenol to the system.