Construction of a novel imaging platform for electric fields in artificial cell membranes

Abstract

We have been developing an artificial cell membrane platform that mimics the cell membrane in vivo. Recently, we have constructed a system that can apply a voltage parallel to the membrane in addition to the conventional transmembrane voltage and have reported that the activities of voltage-dependent channels are modulated by the parallel membrane voltage. However, the mechanism of this phenomenon has not been elucidated yet. In this study, we have constructed a fluorescence imaging experimental system to visualize the electric field in artificial cell membranes in order to elucidate the working principle of the parallel voltage.