Directly mapping the surface charge density of lipid bilayers under physiological conditions

The surface charge density of lipid bilayers governs the cellular uptake of charged particles and guides cell-cell and cell-surface interactions. Direct probing of the potential requires sub nanometer distances as the electrostatic potential is screened by high physiological salt concentrations. This prevented direct measurement of the SCD under physiological conditions. In this study we investigate supported bilayers of lipid mixtures that form domains of distinct surface charges, submerged in 150mM NaCl. We use a scanning ion-conductance microscope (SICM) setup to measure the ionic current through a nanopipette as the pipette is scanned several nanometers above the sample. The charged headgroups of the lipids attract counter ions leading to a charge dependent enhancement of the ion concentration near the surface. This creates a measurable change of conductivity in the vicinity of the surface. As the dependency of the current on the SCD and pipette potential is non-trivial we characterized it using numerical solutions to Poisson and Nernst-Planck equations. Based on the simulation results we propose an imaging method. We confirm feasibility of the proposed method by experimentally mapping the local surface charge density of phase separated lipid bilayers.