Lipid Oxidation

We contributed towards the understanding of the effect of lipid oxidation on model bilayer properties. The team was one of the first to visualize membrane oxidation effects under optical microscopy. In particular, we measured the peroxidation-induced average area increase of DOPC and POPC, using in situ peroxidation of GUVs sucked into a micropipette (Fig.A). We also showed that the stretching modulus of both peroxidized POPC and DOPC is circa four times smaller that their non oxidized counterpart (Fig.B). [1]

Our present effort concerns the determination of the microstructure of peroxidized membranes, with the help of numerical simulations, and also the understanding and control of photo-induced oxidation effects beyond hydroperoxidation.