Edge tension

Taking into account only nearest-neighbor interactions, calculate the value for the line or edge tension k for solid argon at 0 K. The units of k should be in ergs per centimeter. 

In this sechon some applicahon aspects of giant vesicle electroporation are considered. In parhcular, it will be demonstrated that creahng macropores in GUVs and observing their closing dynamics can be successfully apphed to the evaluation of material properties of membranes. While in Section 7.4.2 we saw that such experiments can be used to characterize membrane stability in terms of the crihcal porahon potenhal f c, here we will find out how one can also evaluate the edge tension of porated membranes. In addition, another apphcation based on electro-porahon, namely vesicle electrofusion, is introduced whereby the use of GUVs as microreactors suitable for the synthesis of nanoparhcles is demonstrated. 

Measuring Membrane Edge Tension from Vesicle Electroporation... 

Figure 7.7 Evolution of the porated region in an egg PC vesicle as characterized by R ln(r//) as a function of time t (see Eq. (7.5) note that to avoid plotting a dimensional value in the logarithmic term, we have introduced / = 1 pm). The open circles are experimental data and the solid line is a linear fit, whose slope yields the edge tension / The inset shows a raw image (left) ofa porated vesicle...

As demonstrated above, the edge tension is a sensitive parameter, which effectively characterizes the stability of pores in membranes. Compiling a database for the effect of various types of membrane inclusions will be useful for understanding the lifetime of pores in membranes with more complex compositions, which is important for achieving control over medical applications for drug and gene delivery in cells. 

To measure the edge tension requires an open edge, and in experiments this essentially means looking at pores [124—127]. This also works in simulations [73,... 

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