The innovation engine for new materials

Nicholas Cadirov

Nicholas Cadirov

Major: 

Chemical Engineering

University: 

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Mentor(s): 

Dr. Xavier Banquy

Faculty Sponsor(s): 

Jacob Israelachvili

Faculty Sponsor's Department(s): 

Chemical Engineering

Project Title: 

STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF LIPID DOMAINS IN MODEL MYELIN SHEATH MEMBRANES

Project Description: 

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that damages the myelin sheath surrounding the axons of the brain and spinal cord, leading to sensory and motor disabilities. The cause of MS is currently unknown, but it is hypothesized that delamination in healthy myelin is due to changes in lipid and protein compositions of the myelin membranes that leads to unfavorable changes in their interactions. In this study, modeled healthy and diseased myelin membranes were deposited using a Langmuir-Blodgett trough in which four separate lipid bilayers were designed to mimic extracellular and cytoplasmic leaflets of membranes. The lipid bilayers were tagged with a fluorescence marker to distinguish lipid domains for fluorescence microscopy analysis. Two phases of lipids were clearly present in each lipid bilayer: liquid ordered phases and liquid disordered phases. The healthy membranes displayed evenly distributed domains, while the diseased membranes showed more mixed and chaotic domains. Interestingly, the domains present in healthy membranes were in the liquid ordered phase, but were inverted to the liquid disordered phase in the diseased membranes. Differences in lipid domain size, shape, and distribution between healthy and diseased myelin can give a better understanding of interactions between myelin and axons and possibly lead to an explanation of how delamination occurs in diseases such as MS.