TITLE:
Electrorotation: A Spectroscopic Imaging Approach to Study the Alterations of the Cytoplasmic Membrane
AUTHORS:
Adalberto Bonincontro, Gianfranco Risuleo
KEYWORDS:
Electrorotation, Physical Principles, Membrane Dielectric Parameters, Molecular/Cell Biology
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Molecular Imaging,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
7,
2015
ABSTRACT: Electrorotation
(ER) is a technique allowing the characterization of the surface properties of
a variety of supra-molecular aggregates and living cultured cells as well as
cellular organelles and biological materials in general. In particular, this
technique allows measuring two important physical parameters of the cell
membrane: specific capacitance and specific conductance. These parameters are
strictly related to the structure/function relationships of the biological
membrane; ER becomes thus a powerful means to investigate a number of phenomena
involving the membrane integrity. These phenomena may originate from treatments
with exogenous molecules and/or from pathological effects. Concerning these
aspects, the study of the transfer of exogenous material (i.e. cat-anionic vesicles or liposomes) across the cell membrane
assumes a high importance. This review is focused on the physical functioning
principles of ER and on the quantitative analysis of the experimental
measurements. This work also reports on different fields of application of ER
with particular reference to data obtained in our laboratory. The investigation
of the alterations of the cytoplasmic membrane function, as evidenced by this
strategy, will be illustrated in detail.