Issue 11, 2024

Transient theory for scanning electrochemical microscopy of biological membrane transport: uncovering membrane–permeant interactions

Abstract

Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) has emerged as a powerful method to quantitatively investigate the transport of molecules and ions across various biological membranes as represented by living cells. Advantageously, SECM allows for the in situ and non-destructive imaging and measurement of high membrane permeability under simple steady-state conditions, thereby facilitating quantitative data analysis. The SECM method, however, has not provided any information about the interactions of a transported species, i.e., a permeant, with a membrane through its components, e.g., lipids, channels, and carriers. Herein, we propose theoretically that SECM enables the quantitative investigation of membrane–permeant interactions by employing transient conditions. Specifically, we model the membrane–permeant interactions based on a Langmuir-type isotherm to define the strength and kinetics of the interactions as well as the concentration of interaction sites. Finite element simulation predicts that each of the three parameters uniquely affects the chronoamperometric current response of an SECM tip to a permeant. Significantly, this prediction implies that all three parameters are determinable from an experimental chronoamperometric response of the SECM tip. Complimentarily, the steady-state current response of the SECM tip yields the overall membrane permeability based on the combination of the three parameters. Interestingly, our simulation also reveals the optimum strength of membrane–permeant interactions to maximize the transient flux of the permeant from the membrane to the tip.

Graphical abstract: Transient theory for scanning electrochemical microscopy of biological membrane transport: uncovering membrane–permeant interactions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Mar 2024
Accepted
15 Apr 2024
First published
19 Apr 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Analyst, 2024,149, 3115-3122

Transient theory for scanning electrochemical microscopy of biological membrane transport: uncovering membrane–permeant interactions

S. Huang and S. Amemiya, Analyst, 2024, 149, 3115 DOI: 10.1039/D4AN00411F

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