The surface charge of a cell lipid membrane

TL;DR

This paper investigates the negative surface charge of cell lipid membranes, develops a self-consistent potential model, and proposes experiments to verify the surface charge distribution, aiding in understanding membrane electrostatics.

Contribution

It introduces a self-consistent model of membrane surface charge and potential, providing a new method to estimate charges on cell membranes.

Findings

Both sides of the membrane are negatively charged.

Ions are trapped in potential wells near phospholipid dipoles.

Proposed experiments can verify the model.

Abstract

In this paper the problem of surface charge of the lipid membrane immersed in the physiological solution is considered. It is shown that both side of the bilayer phospholipid membrane surface are negatively charged. A self-consistent model of the potential in solution is developed, and a stationary charge density on the membrane surface is found. It is shown that the ions of the surface charge are in a relatively deep (as compared to kBT) potential wells, which are localized near the dipole heads of phospholipid membrane. It makes impossible for ions to slip along the membrane surface. Simple experiments for verifying the correctness of the considered model are proposed. A developed approach can be used for estimations of the surface charges on the outer and inner membrane of the cell.