title: Helfrich model of membrane bending: from Gibbs theory of liquid interfaces to membranes as thick anisotropic elastic layers.
abstract: Helfrich model of membrane bending elasticity has been most influential in establishment and development of Soft-Matter Physics of lipid bilayers and biological membranes. Recently, Helfrich theory has been extensively used in Cell Biology to understand the phenomena of shaping, fusion and fission of cellular membranes. The general background of Helfrich theory on the one hand, and the ways of specifying the model parameters on the other, are important for quantitative treatment of particular biologically relevant membrane phenomena. Here we present the origin of Helfrich model within the context of the general Gibbs theory of capillary interfaces, and review the strategies of computing the membrane elastic moduli based on considering a lipid monolayer as a three-dimensional thick layer characterized by trans-monolayer profiles of elastic parameters. We present the results of original computations of these profiles by a state-of-the-art numerical approach.
authors.affiliation: Cell and Developmental Biology Programme, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), 08003 Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), 08003 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Campelo
authors.affiliation: Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute and Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Clement
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arnarez
authors.affiliation: Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute and Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 7, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: s.j.marrink@rug.nl.
authors.forename: Siewert J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Marrink
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel. Electronic address: michk@post.tau.ac.il.
authors.forename: Michael M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kozlov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry*; D004548:Elasticity; D006801:Humans; D007425:Intracellular Membranes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008954:Models, Biological; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes
keywords: Curvature; Membrane elasticity; Molecular dynamics; Surface thermodynamics; Trans-monolayer elasticity profile