Self-Sustained Oscillations of Membrane Potential in DOPH-Millipore Membranes

Abstract

Self-sustained oscillations of membrane potential in an artificial model membrane, where dioleyl phosphate (DOPH) is infiltrated into pores of a Millipore filter, are investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Spike-like self-oscillations with an extremely long period of about one hour were observed for membranes with large adsorbed amounts of DOPH in the absence of external forces such as electric current and pressure gradient. On the basis of a previously-presented model that DOPH molecules make transitions among three phases composed of oil droplets, spherical micelles and multi- or bilayer leaflets, the occurrence of self-oscillations is explained well by taking account of an accumulation and a release of salt in a pore of the filter.