We report the effects of calcium ions on the adhesion and hemifusion mechanisms of model supported myelin lipid bilayer membranes of differing lipid composition. As in our previous studies [1, 2], the lipid compositions used mimic “healthy” and “diseased-like” (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, EAE) membranes. Our results show that the interaction forces as a function of membrane separation distance are well described by a generic model that also (and in particular) includes the hydrophobic interaction arising from the hydrophobically exposed (interior) parts of the bilayers. The model is able to capture the mechanical instability that triggers the onset of the hemifusion event, and highlights the primary role of the hydrophobic interaction in membrane fusion. The effects of lipid composition on the fusion mechanism, and the adhesion forces between myelin lipid bilayers, can be summarized as follow: in calcium-free buffer, healthy membranes do not present any signs of adhesion or hemifusion, while diseased membranes hemifuse easily. Addition of 2 mM calcium favors adhesion and hemifusion of the membranes independently of their composition, but the mechanisms involved in the two processes were different: healthy bilayers systematically presented stronger adhesion forces and lower energy barriers to fusion compared to diseased bilayers. These results are of particular relevance for understanding lesion development (demyelination, swelling, vacuolization and/or vesiculation) in myelin associated diseases such as multiple sclerosis and its relationship to lipid domain formation in myelin membranes.

Mussel adhesion is mediated by foot proteins (mfp) rich in a catecholic amino acid, 3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa), capable of forming strong bidentate interactions with a variety of surfaces. A facile tendency toward auto-oxidation, however, often renders dopa unreliable for adhesion. Mussels limit dopa oxidation during adhesive plaque formation by imposing an acidic, reducing regime based on thiol-rich mfp-6, which restores dopa by coupling the oxidation of thiols to dopaquinone reduction.

We consider the adhesive interaction energy between a pair of vesicles in the strong adhesion limit, in which bending forces play a negligible role in determining vesicle shape compared to forces due to membrane stretching. Although force-distance or energy distance relationships characterizing adhesive interactions between fluid bilayers are routinely measured using the surface forces apparatus, the atomic force microscope and the biomembrane force probe, the interacting bilayers in these methods are supported on surfaces (e.g. mica sheet) and cannot be deformed. However, it is known that in a suspension, vesicles composed of the same bilayer can deform by stretching or bending, and can also undergo changes in volume. Adhesively interacting vesicles can thus form flat regions in the contact zone, which will result in an enhanced interaction energy as compared to rigid vesicles. The focus of this paper is to examine the magnitude of the interaction energy between adhesively interacting, deformed vesicles relative to free, undeformed vesicles as a function of the intervesicle separation. The modification of the intervesicle interaction energy due to vesicle deformability can be calculated knowing the undeformed radius of the vesicles, R0, the bending modulus kb, the area expansion modulus Ka, and the adhesive minimum WP(0) and separation DP(0) in the energy of interaction between two flat bilayers, which can be obtained from the force-distance measurements made using the above supported-bilayer methods. For vesicles with constant volumes, we show that adhesive potentials between non-deforming bilayers such as ∣WP(0)∣∼5×10−4mJ/m2, which are ordinarily considered weak in colloidal physics literature, can result in significantly deep (>10×) energy minima due to increase in vesicle area and flattening in the contact region. If the osmotic expulsion of water across the vesicles driven by the tense, stretched membrane in the presence of an osmotically active solute is also taken into account, the vesicles can undergo additional deformation (flattening), which further enhances the adhesive interaction between them. Finally, equilibration of ions and solutes due to the concentration differences created by the osmotic exchange of water can lead to further enhancement of the adhesion energy. Our result of the progressively increasing adhesive interaction energy between vesicles in above regimes could explain why suspensions of very weakly attractive vesicles may undergo flocculation and eventual instability due to separation of vesicles from the suspending fluid by gravity. The possibility of such an instability is an extremely important issue for concentrated vesicle-based products and applications such as fabric softeners, hair therapeutics and drug delivery.

The chemistry of mussel adhesion has commanded the focus of much recent research activity on wet adhesion. By comparison, the equally critical adhesive processing by marine organisms has been little examined. Using a mussel-inspired coacervate formed by mixing a recombinant mussel adhesive protein (fp-151-RGD) with hyaluronic acid (HA), we have examined the nanostructure, viscosity, friction, and interfacial energy of fluid-fluid phase-separated coacervates using the surface forces apparatus and microscopic techniques. At mixing ratios of fp-151-RGD:HA resulting in marginal coacervation, the coacervates showed shear-thickening viscosity and no structure by cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). However, at the mixing ratio producing maximum coacervation, the coacervate showed shear-thinning viscosity and a transition to a bicontinuous phase by cryo-TEM. The shear-thinning viscosity, high friction coefficient (>1.2), and low interfacial energy (<1 mJ m−2) observed at the optimal mixing ratio for coacervation are promising delivery, spreading and adhesion properties for future wet adhesive and coating technologies.

Much of the short-range forces and structures of softly supported DMPC bilayers has been described previously. However, one interesting feature of the measured force–distance profile that remained unexplained is the presence of a long-range exponentially decaying repulsive force that is not observed between rigidly supported bilayers on solid mica substrate surfaces. This observation is discussed in detail here based on recent static and dynamic surface force experiments. The repulsive forces in the intermediate distance regime (mica–mica separations from 15 to 40 nm) are shown to be due not to an electrostatic force between the bilayers but to compression (deswelling) of the underlying soft polyelectrolyte layer, which may be thought of as a model cytoskeleton. The experimental data can be fit by simple theoretical models of polymer interactions from which the elastic properties of the polymer layer can be deduced.

Mussels use a variety of 3, 4-dihydroxyphenyl-l-alanine (DOPA) rich proteins specifically tailored to adhering to wet surfaces. Synthetic polypeptide analogues of adhesive mussel foot proteins (specifically mfp-3) are used to study the role of DOPA in adhesion. The mussel-inspired peptide is a random copolymer of DOPA and N5 -(2-hydroxyethyl)-l-glutamine synthesized with DOPA concentrations of 0–27 mol% and molecular weights of 5.9–7.1 kDa. Thin films (3–5 nm thick) of the mussel-inspired peptide are used in the surface forces apparatus (SFA) to measure the force–distance profiles and adhesion and cohesion energies of the films in an acetate buffer. The adhesion energies of the mussel-inspired peptide films to mica and TiO2 surfaces increase with DOPA concentration. The adhesion energy to mica is 0.09 μJ m−2 molDOPA−1 and does not depend on contact time or load. The adhesion energy to TiO2 is 0.29 μJ m−2 molDOPA−1 for short contact times and increases to 0.51 μJ m−2 molDOPA−1 for contact times >60 min in a way suggestive of a phase transition within the film. Oxidation of DOPA to the quinone form, either by addition of periodate or by increasing the pH, increases the thickness and reduces the cohesion of the films. Adding thiol containing polymers between the oxidized films recovers some of the cohesion strength. Comparison of the mussel-inspired peptide films to previous studies on mfp-3 thin films show that the strong adhesion and cohesion in mfp-3 films can be attributed to DOPA groups favorably oriented within or at the interface of these films.