Biospecific mechanism of double layer formation and peculiarities of cell electrophoresis

The cellular zeta potential: cell electrophysiology beyond the membrane

The standard model of the cell membrane potential Vm describes it as arising from diffusion currents across a membrane with a constant electric field, with zero electric field outside the cell membrane. However, the influence of Vm has been shown to extend into the extracellular space where it alters the cell's ζ-potential, the electrical potential measured a few nm from the cell surface which defines how the cell interacts with charged entities in its environment, including ions, molecules, and other cells. The paradigm arising from surface science is that the ζ-potential arises only from fixed membrane surface charge, and has consequently received little interest. However, if the ζ-potential can mechanistically and dynamically change by alteration of Vm, it allows the cell to dynamically alter cell-cell and cell-molecule interactions and may explain previously unexplained electrophysiological behaviours. Whilst the two potentials Vm and ζ are rarely reported together, they are occasionally described in different studies for the same cell type. By considering published data on these parameters across multiple cell types, as well as incidences of unexplained but seemingly functional Vm changes correlating with changes in cell behaviour, evidence is presented that this may play a functional role in the physiology of red blood cells, macrophages, platelets, sperm, ova, bacteria and cancer. Understanding how these properties will improve understanding of the role of electrical potentials and charges in the regulation of cell function and in the way in which cells interact with their environment. Insight  The zeta (ζ) potential is the electrical potential a few nm beyond the surface of any suspensoid in water. Whilst typically assumed to arise only from fixed charges on the cell surface, recent and historical evidence shows a strong link to the cell's membrane potential Vm, which the cell can alter mechanistically through the use of ion channels. Whilst these two potentials have rarely been studied simultaneously, this review collates data across multiple studies reporting Vm, ζ-potential, electrical properties of changes in cell behaviour. Collectively, this points to Vm-mediated ζ-potential playing a significant role in the physiology and activity of blood cells, immune response, developmental biology and egg fertilization, and cancer among others.

Predicting isoelectric points of nonfunctional mitochondria from Monte Carlo simulations of surface compositions

Mitochondria are heterogeneous organelles involved in energy production, metabolism, and cellular signaling that oftentimes are isolated from cells for chemical characterization (e.g., proteomic analysis). The chemical composition of the mitochondrial outer membrane is one of the factors defining the mitochondrial isoelectric point (pI), which is a property useful for the analysis and characterization of isolated mitochondria. We previously used capillary isoelectric focusing (cIEF) with laser-induced-fluorescence detection to determine the experimental pI of individual mitochondria after their isolation under depolarizing conditions. This technique revealed that, when kept nonfunctional, mitochondrial pI is heterogeneous as displayed by the observed distributions of pI. To model the effect of surface composition on pI heterogeneity of these mitochondria, we devised a method to predict mitochondrial pI values using simulated surface compositions. The method was initially validated by predicting the pI values of known mitochondrial outer membrane proteins and was then extended to isolated mitochondria, in which both ionizable amino acids and phospholipids contribute to mitochondrial pI. After using a Monte Carlo method to generate a library of over 2 million possible mitochondrial surface compositions, sufficient compositions to match the frequency of occurrence of experimental mitochondrial pI values were randomly selected. This comparison allows for association of a given individual mitochondrial pI with thousands of randomly chosen compositions. The method predicts significant changes in the percentages of some amino acids and phospholipids for observed pI differences between individual mitochondria, which is an important advancement toward explaining the observed heterogeneity of mitochondrial pI.

Charge heterogeneity of surfaces: mapping and effects on surface forces

The DLVO theory treats the total interaction force between two surfaces in a liquid medium as an arithmetic sum of two components: Lifshitz-van der Waals and electric double layer forces. Despite the success of the DLVO model developed for homogeneous surfaces, a vast majority of surfaces of particles and materials in technological systems are of a heterogeneous nature with a mosaic structure composed of microscopic and sub-microscopic domains of different surface characteristics. In such systems, the heterogeneity of the surface can be more important than the average surface character. Attractions can be stronger, by orders of magnitude, than would be expected from the classical mean-field DLVO model when area-averaged surface charge or potential is employed. Heterogeneity also introduces anisotropy of interactions into colloidal systems, vastly ignored in the past. To detect surface heterogeneities, analytical tools which provide accurate and spatially resolved information about material surface chemistry and potential - particularly at microscopic and sub-microscopic resolutions - are needed. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) offers the opportunity to locally probe not only changes in material surface characteristic but also charges of heterogeneous surfaces through measurements of force-distance curves in electrolyte solutions. Both diffuse-layer charge densities and potentials can be calculated by fitting the experimental data with a DLVO theoretical model. The surface charge characteristics of the heterogeneous substrate as recorded by AFM allow the charge variation to be mapped. Based on the obtained information, computer modeling and simulation can be performed to study the interactions among an ensemble of heterogeneous particles and their collective motions. In this paper, the diffuse-layer charge mapping by the AFM technique is briefly reviewed, and a new Diffuse Interface Field Approach to colloid modeling and simulation is briefly discussed.

Concentration polarization of interface and non-linear electrokinetic phenomena

The review addresses the peculiarities of concentration polarization caused by an electric current passing through conducting and around nonconducting charged materials. The conditions of emergence of an induced space charge of large density and thickness behind an electrical double layer, leading to strong non-linearity of electroosmosis and electrophoresis, are analyzed. Basic findings about concentration polarization, its theoretical modeling and experimental investigations, as well as its influence on electrokinetic phenomena and mass transfer through ion-exchange materials are discussed from the point of view of the fundamental knowledge about polarization processes and from the perspective of their practical application. The analysis focuses on the main properties of concentration polarization, electroosmotic flow of liquid around single fixed particles and through the system of particles, and electrophoresis of particles suspended in aqueous medium and current through flat, spherical and cylindrical interfaces and membranes with heterogeneous conductivity. The paper also presents the general ideas of concentration polarization and non-linear electrokinetic phenomena in case of nonconducting particles and their dependence on particle surface electroconductivity. Existing theoretical models describing polarization of nonconducting particles at high and low Peclet numbers are analyzed, with appropriate experimental data being provided to validate the theory. A joint analysis of polarization of conducting and nonconducting particles completes the review.

Peculiarities of live cells' interaction with micro- and nanoparticles

Experimental evidence collected more than 20 years ago in different laboratories suggests that the interactions between live biological cells and micro- and nanoparticles depend on their metabolic state. These experiments were conducted by reputable groups, led by prominent leaders such as H. Pohl of the USA, who was the inventor of dielectrophoresis, and B. Derjaguin of the Soviet Union who was the leading author of DLVO theory. The experiments had been mostly conducted with microparticles in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s, Ukrainian researchers showed that the interaction of live cells with gold nanoparticles consisted of an initial reversible step that also depended on cell metabolism. They found indirect evidence that the ion pumps of the cells were responsible for the reversible step. Ion pumps generate a transmembrane potential, a measurable and widely-used characteristic of the cell's energetic state. The transmembrane potential, in turn, strongly affects the zeta-potential, as was experimentally discovered 40 years ago by several independent groups using cell electrophoresis. This relationship should be taken into account when DLVO theory is considered as the basis for describing the interactions between live cells and micro- and nanoparticles. Unfortunately, detail theoretical analysis indicates that such modification would not be sufficient for explaining observed peculiarities mentioned above. That is why distinguished theoreticians such as Pohl, Frohlich, Derjaguin and others have suggested three theoretical models, presumably to explain these experiments. These theoretical models should be considered to be complementary to the well-established concepts developed on this subject in the molecular biology of cells and cell adhesion. This paper is not a revision of the existing models. It is an overview of the old and forgotten experimental data and discussion of the suggested theoretical models. The unusual interaction mechanisms are only specific for live biological cells and serve a dual role: either as a first barrier to protect the cell from potentially damaging, dispersed particulates, or as a means of accumulating useful substances. Both functions are critical for the modern problem of nanotoxicology.

Towards an understanding of induced-charge electrokinetics at large applied voltages in concentrated solutions

The venerable theory of electrokinetic phenomena rests on the hypothesis of a dilute solution of point-like ions in quasi-equilibrium with a weakly charged surface, whose potential relative to the bulk is of order the thermal voltage (kT/e approximately 25 mV at room temperature). In nonlinear electrokinetic phenomena, such as AC or induced-charge electro-osmosis (ACEO, ICEO) and induced-charge electrophoresis (ICEP), several V approximately 100 kT/e are applied to polarizable surfaces in microscopic geometries, and the resulting electric fields and induced surface charges are large enough to violate the assumptions of the classical theory. In this article, we review the experimental and theoretical literatures, highlight discrepancies between theory and experiment, introduce possible modifications of the theory, and analyze their consequences. We argue that, in response to a large applied voltage, the "compact layer" and "shear plane" effectively advance into the liquid, due to the crowding of counterions. Using simple continuum models, we predict two general trends at large voltages: (i) ionic crowding against a blocking surface expands the diffuse double layer and thus decreases its differential capacitance, and (ii) a charge-induced viscosity increase near the surface reduces the electro-osmotic mobility; each trend is enhanced by dielectric saturation. The first effect is able to predict high-frequency flow reversal in ACEO pumps, while the second may explain the decay of ICEO flow with increasing salt concentration. Through several colloidal examples, such as ICEP of an uncharged metal sphere in an asymmetric electrolyte, we show that nonlinear electrokinetic phenomena are generally ion-specific. Similar theoretical issues arise in nanofluidics (due to confinement) and ionic liquids (due to the lack of solvent), so the paper concludes with a general framework of modified electrokinetic equations for finite-sized ions.

Electrophoresis in strong electric fields

Two kinds of non-linear electrophoresis (ef) that can be detected in strong electric fields (several hundred V/cm) are considered. The first ("classical" non-linear ef) is due to the interaction of the outer field with field-induced ionic charges in the electric double layer (EDL) under conditions, when field-induced variations of electrolyte concentration remain to be small comparatively to its equilibrium value. According to the Shilov theory, the non-linear component of the electrophoretic velocity for dielectric particles is proportional to the cubic power of the applied field strength (cubic electrophoresis) and to the second power of the particles radius; it is independent of the zeta-potential but is determined by the surface conductivity of particles. The second one, the so-called "superfast electrophoresis" is connected with the interaction of a strong outer field with a secondary diffuse layer of counterions (space charge) that is induced outside the primary (classical) diffuse EDL by the external field itself because of concentration polarization. The Dukhin-Mishchuk theory of "superfast electrophoresis" predicts quadratic dependence of the electrophoretic velocity of unipolar (ionically or electronically) conducting particles on the external field gradient and linear dependence on the particle's size in strong electric fields. These are in sharp contrast to the laws of classical electrophoresis (no dependence of V(ef) on the particle's size and linear dependence on the electric field gradient). A new method to measure the ef velocity of particles in strong electric fields is developed that is based on separation of the effects of sedimentation and electrophoresis using videoimaging and a new flowcell and use of short electric pulses. To test the "classical" non-linear electrophoresis, we have measured the ef velocity of non-conducting polystyrene, aluminium-oxide and (semiconductor) graphite particles as well as Saccharomice cerevisiae yeast cells as a function of the electric field strength, particle size, electrolyte concentration and the adsorbed polymer amount. It has been shown that the electrophoretic velocity of the particles/cells increases with field strength linearly up to about 100 and 200 V/cm (for cells) without and with adsorbed polymers both in pure water and in electrolyte solutions. In line with the theoretical predictions, in stronger fields substantial non-linear effects were recorded (V(ef)~E(3)). The ef velocity of unipolar ion-type conducting (ion-exchanger particles and fibres), electron-type conducting (magnesium and Mg/Al alloy) and semiconductor particles (graphite, activated carbon, pyrite, molybdenite) increases significantly with the electric field (V(ef)~E(2)) and the particle's size but is almost independent of the ionic strength. These trends are inconsistent with Smoluchowski's equation for dielectric particles, but are consistent with the Dukhin-Mishchuk theory of superfast electrophoresis.

Aperiodic capillary electrophoresis method using an alternating current electric field for separation of macromolecules

Switching from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) electric fields has provided substantial improvements in various instrument techniques that use electric fields for manipulating with various liquid-based systems. For example, AC fields are now used in both light scattering and electroacoustic instruments for measuring xi-potential, largely replacing more traditional microelectrophoresis techniques that use DC fields. In this paper, we suggest a novel way to make a similar transition in the area of separation techniques, capillary electrophoresis (CE) in particular. Dielectrophoresis is one well-known separation effect in which a drifting motion of particles is produced in a "spatially nonhomogeneous" AC electric field. However, there is another field effect that also causes a similar drift of particles. Instead of a "spatially nonhomogeneous" field, this method relies on a "temporally nonhomogeneous" field, normally referred to as "aperiodic electrophoresis". Despite a number of recently published experimental and theoretical papers describing this effect, it is less well-known than dielectrophoresis. We present a short overview of some of the relevant papers. We point out for the first time the idea that "aperiodic electrophoresis" might be useful for separation of macromolecules. We suggest several new mechanisms that could induce this effect in a sufficiently strong AC electric field. This effect can be used as a basis for a new separation method having several important advantages over traditional CE. We present a simple scheme as an example illustrating this new method.

Electrophoretic Mobility of Soft Particles in Concentrated Suspensions

A general theory is developed for the electrophoretic mobility of spherical soft particles (i.e., spherical hard colloidal particles of radius a coated with a layer of polyelectrolytes of thickness d) in concentrated suspensions in an electrolyte solution as a function of the particle volume fraction &phi; on the basis of Kuwabara's cell model. In the limit d-->0, the mobility expression obtained tends to that for spherical hard particles in concentrated suspensions, whereas in the limit a-->0, it becomes that for spherical polyelectrolytes (charged porous spheres with no particle core). Simple approximate analytic mobility expressions are derived for the case where relaxation effect is negligible. It is found that in practical cases, the &phi; dependence of the mobility is negligible for d<<a, whereas for d>>a, the mobility strongly decreases with increasing &phi;. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.