title: Pseudo painting/air bubble technique for planar lipid bilayers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A functional reconstitution of channel proteins in planar lipid bilayers is still very versatile to study structure/function correlates under well-defined conditions at the single protein level.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study we present an improved planar lipid bilayer technique in which an air bubble is used for stabilizing unstable/leaky bilayers or for removing excess lipids. The bubble can also be used as a tool for reducing the number of channels in the bilayer with the goal of having only one active channel in the membrane.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Stable planar lipid bilayers are formed within seconds to minutes. In the case of multiple channel insertion the air bubble can be used to reduce the number of channels within minutes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The simple improvement of the classical folding technique guarantees a very fast creation of stable bilayers even with difficult phospholipids in a conventional vertical bilayer set-up; it requires no modifications of the existing set-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This technique is very easy to handle and guarantees successful single channel recordings for any kind of planar lipid bilayer experiment.
authors.affiliation: Membrane Biophysics, Technical University of Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstrasse 3, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany. Electronic address: braunc@bio.tu-darmstadt.de.
authors.forename: Christian J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.affiliation: Membrane Biophysics, Technical University of Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstrasse 3, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Baer
authors.affiliation: Department of Biosciences, University of Milan, Via Celoria 26, 20133 Milano, Italy; CNR-IBF, Via Celoria 26, 20133 Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moroni
authors.affiliation: Membrane Biophysics, Technical University of Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstrasse 3, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thiel
mesh_terms: D000388:Air; D004134:Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine / Q000737:chemistry; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000138:chemical synthesis*; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D008839:Microelectrodes; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000737:chemistry; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry; D015221:Potassium Channels / Q000737:chemistry; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines; D010743:Phospholipids; D015221:Potassium Channels; C021016:1,2-diphytanoylphosphatidylcholine; D004134:Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine
keywords: Black lipid membrane (BLM); Monolayer folding technique; Planar lipid bilayer; Pseudo painting/air bubble technique; Single-channel measurement; Viral potassium channel