Weakly adhering vesicles in shear flow: Tanktreading and anomalous lift force

B. Lorz, R. Simson, J. Nardi, E. Sackmann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the deformation and unbinding of weakly adhering giant vesicles under hydrodynamic shear forces. Linear shear fields are generated in a flat cell and vesicle adhesion onto a supported membrane is generated by electrostatic forces between oppositely charged lipids. The hydrodynamic flow in the aqueous medium near the outer side of the vesicle, within the vesicle and the tanktreading motion in the membrane are observed by tracing small markers attached to the vesicles or suspended in the medium by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The lift force generated by the rotational flow in the vesicle was estimated to be at least two orders of magnitude larger than predicted by the simple theory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)468-474
Number of pages7
JournalEurophysics Letters
Volume51
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Aug 2000

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