Wave Propagation in Lipid Monolayers

Sound waves are excited on lipid monolayers using a set of planar electrodes aligned in parallel with the excitable medium. By measuring the frequency-dependent change in the lateral pressure, we are able to extract the sound velocity for the entire monolayer phase diagram. We demonstrate that this velocity can also be directly derived from the lipid monolayer compressibility, and consequently displays a minimum in the phase transition regime. This minimum decreases from v0 = 170 m/s for one-component lipid monolayers down to vm = 50 m/s for lipid mixtures. No significant attenuation can be detected confirming an adiabatic phenomenon. Finally, our data propose a relative lateral density oscillation of Δρ/ρ ∼2%, implying a change in all area-dependent physical properties. Order-of-magnitude estimates from static couplings therefore predict propagating changes in surface potential of 1–50 mV, 1 unit in pH (electrochemical potential), and 0.01 K in temperature, and fall within the same order of magnitude as physical changes measured during nerve pulse propagation. These results therefore strongly support the idea of propagating adiabatic sound waves along nerves as first thoroughly described by Kaufmann in 1989 and recently by Heimburg and Jackson, but already claimed by Wilke in 1912.