Cytoskeleton confinement and tension of red blood cell membranes.
We analyze theoretically both the static and dynamic fluctuation spectra of the red blood cell in a unified manner, using a simple model of the composite membrane. In this model, the two-dimensional spectrin network that forms the cytoskeleton is treated as a rigid shell, located at a fixed, average distance from the lipid bilayer. The cytoskeleton thereby confines both the static and dynamic fluctuations of the lipid bilayer. The sparse connections of the cytoskeleton and bilayer induce a surface tension, for wavelengths larger than the bilayer persistence length. The predictions of the model give a consistent account for both the wave vector and frequency dependence of the experimental data.
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Department of Materials and Interfaces, The Weizmann Institute of Science, P.O.B. 26, Rehovot, Israel 76100.
Zilman
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AG
Safran
S
S
D000818:Animals; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D004910:Erythrocyte Membrane / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry; D008954:Models, Biological; D013049:Spectrin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology
D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D013049:Spectrin