The effect of electric fields on lipid membranes

Contrary to existing theoretical models, experimental evidence points out that electroporation (membrane defect formation under external electric fields) starts to occur within the range of transmembrane voltages that cells may routinely experience, curiously, just above the range of transmembrane voltages involved in neural signal transmission. Understanding the underlying principles of electric fields-lipid membrane interactions seems to carry a great biological importance. An argument is presented toward understanding the theoretical aspects of electroporation by using the DLVO theory, which has not been recognized previously in the context of electroporation. Further, the dispersion interactions (with its quantum nature), of the double layer counterions and membrane lipid molecules over the Stern layer are emphasized. The sign of these forces is such that they compress the membrane. A parallel is drawn to the theory of thin films. The argument is that the external electric field breaks the symmetry of the disjoining pressures on both sides of a lipid membrane, resulting in a protrusion of only few lipid molecules. That compromises the membrane stability on a nanoscale and makes it traversable to ions. The presented estimate based on these arguments is consistent to electroporation experiments and existing numerical simulations.