Sanjai's paper on Identification of a critical lipid ratio in raft-like phases exposed to nitric oxide via AFM is published

Figure 1. Overview of the experimental setup and determination of threshold pull-out forces. Before measurements of tip-membrane forces, forces due to nonspecific interactions (i.e., tip-mica surface) were determined (A). The tip-mica surface generated adhesive forces ranging between 0.02 and 0.65 nN (B) with a maximum at ~0.2 nN. Based on the obtained values, 0.75 nN was set as threshold force above which adhesive forces were attributed to the pull-out force of tip from the lipid bilayer. Control and RLPs samples (with changing SM concentration) were later treated with NO for 15 min (C) and the possible outcomes were determined using force spectroscopy and AFM imaging (D). The histogram shown in (B) is plotted from the adhesion data of untreated POPC:SM:CH (2:0:1) bilayers. The straight lines are KDE. Break-through forces are described in Fig. 2.

Lipid rafts are specialized domains in the cell membrane and are critical for many cell transduction mechanisms. Any modifications to lipid rafts can alter their functionality, especially in stress conditions. Although studies on the effect of cholesterol concentration and its oxidation on membrane characteristics have been known, understanding the influence of sphingomyelin is equally important. Here, we look into whether nitric oxide radical can perturb the membrane permeability and bilayer thickness with changing sphingomyelin and nitric oxide concentration.

Sanjai's paper on Identification of a critical lipid ratio in raft-like phases exposed to nitric oxide: An AFM study is published Biopysical Journal. Congratulations Sanjai

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