Eur. Phys. J. B 6, 373-380 (1998)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050563

Bending of charged flexible membranes due to the presence of macroions

Materials Research Laboratory, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5130, USA

Corresponding author: ^a heli@mrl.ucsb.edu

Received: 9 February 1998
Revised: 9 June 1998
Accepted: 2 July 1998
Published online: 15 December 1998

Abstract

We investigate the bending of flexible charged membranes due to the presence of rigid rodlike macroions in the framework of the Debye-Hückel approximation. When the macroions are fixed in space at some distance from the bilayer the membrane bends towards them; we calculate the exact deformation profile. On the other hand a macroion which is adsorbed on the membrane causes a deflection of the bilayer. Finally, we consider swollen lamellar polyanion/charged-lipid complexes where the macroions are intercalated between charged lipid bilayers. We predict the occurrence of a double adsorption (pinching effect) of the macroion for sufficiently flexible membranes.