Response of Gel-Phase Membranes

The critical transmembrane potential for the latter was found to be in the range 8-lOV [111]. This value is significantly higher than the critical potenhal of IV reported for fluid membranes [59, 98, 99]. Thus, membranes in the gel phase can sustain higher tensile stresses (see Eqs. (7.3) and (7.4)). This is also confirmed by micropipette aspiration experiments showing that fluid-phase dimyristoylphos-phahdylcholine membranes undergo lysis at tensions around but 

It is important to note that the rupture process depends on the loading rate [61, 

At high loading rates a membrane can sustain much higher tensions before it ruptures. Similar behavior was demonstrated by simulahon studies, where fluid dipalmitoylphosphahdylcholine (DPPC) bilayers were shown to spontaneously rupture at tensions exceeding 90iriNm [119]. 

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