Structural Characterization of Nanoparticle-Supported Lipid Bilayer Arrays by Grazing Incidence X-ray and Neutron Scattering

Nicolò Paracini, Philipp Gutfreund, Rebecca Welbourn, Juan Francisco Gonzalez-Martinez, Kexin Zhu, Yansong Miao, Nageshwar Yepuri, Tamim A. Darwish, Christopher Garvey, Sarah Waldie, Johan Larsson, Max Wolff, Marité Cárdenas

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Arrays of nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayers (nanoSLB) are lipid-coated nanopatterned interfaces that provide a platform to study curved model biological membranes using surface-sensitive techniques. We combined scattering techniques with direct imaging, to gain access to sub-nanometer scale structural information on stable nanoparticle monolayers assembled on silicon crystals in a noncovalent manner using a Langmuir-Schaefer deposition. The structure of supported lipid bilayers formed on the nanoparticle arrays via vesicle fusion was investigated using a combination of grazing incidence X-ray and neutron scattering techniques complemented by fluorescence microscopy imaging. Ordered nanoparticle assemblies were shown to be suitable and stable substrates for the formation of curved and fluid lipid bilayers that retained lateral mobility, as shown by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and quartz crystal microbalance measurements. Neutron reflectometry revealed the formation of high-coverage lipid bilayers around the spherical particles together with a flat lipid bilayer on the substrate below the nanoparticles. The presence of coexisting flat and curved supported lipid bilayers on the same substrate, combined with the sub-nanometer accuracy and isotopic sensitivity of grazing incidence neutron scattering, provides a promising novel approach to investigate curvature-dependent membrane phenomena on supported lipid bilayers.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3772-3780
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume15
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 25 2023
Externally publishedYes

Funding

M.C. and N.P. thank the Swedish Research Council for financial support. N.P. acknowledges support from Nordforsk – Nordic Neutron Science Program (Grant 106881). M.C. thanks Wennergren foundation for financial support. The authors thank the ILL for beamtime (D22: doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-02-912, FIGARO: doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-02-889) and Prof. Jaume Torres for access to a Langmuir Trough at Nanyang Technological University. This study was supported by Singapore MOE Tier 3 (MOE2019-T3-1-012) to Y.M. The National Deuteration Facility in Australia is partly funded by The National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), an Australian Government initiative. M.C. and M.W. thank the Röntgen-Ångstrom Cluster, grant no. 2021-05963. M.C. and N.P. thank the Swedish Research Council for financial support. N.P. acknowledges support from Nordforsk - Nordic Neutron Science Program (Grant 106881). M.C. thanks Wennergren foundation for financial support. The authors thank the ILL for beamtime (D22: doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-02-912, FIGARO: doi:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-02-889) and Prof. Jaume Torres for access to a Langmuir Trough at Nanyang Technological University. This study was supported by Singapore MOE Tier 3 (MOE2019-T3-1-012) to Y.M. The National Deuteration Facility in Australia is partly funded by The National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), an Australian Government initiative. M.C. and M.W. thank the Röntgen-Ångstrom Cluster, grant no. 2021-05963.

FundersFunder number
Nordforsk - Nordic Neutron Science Program
Nordforsk – Nordic Neutron Science Program106881
Wennergren foundation:10.5291/ILL-DATA.8-02-889
Nanyang Technological University2021-05963, MOE2019-T3-1-012
Vetenskapsrådet

    Keywords

    • GISANS
    • GISAXS
    • membrane curvature
    • model membranes
    • nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayers, nanoSLB
    • neutron reflectometry

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