Interfacial properties of hydrophilic surfaces of phospholipid films as determined by the method of contact angles

Hydrophilic films of phospholipids were deposited onto plastic substrates (surface-treated for cell cultures) and shown to adhere sufficiently for measuring their interfacial properties by the method of contact angles. Both by absolute magnitude and by their dependence on temperature, the interfacial properties of these phospholipid films were indistinguishable from those determined for black lipid bilayer membranes with a different method by other authors. According to both their vesicular micromorphology and water permeability, the surface films can be interpreted to consist essentially of multibilayer vesicles with the hydrophilic groups facing outward. Treatment of these films with cell-culture medium containing calf serum results in changes of interfacial properties that are very similar to those effected on virus-transformed 3T3 cells (earlier work). These interfacial effects may be attributed essentially to serum proteins (such as albumin) adsorbing to phospholipid or cellular surfaces. The interfacial properties of nontransformed 3T3 cells are much less affected by serum treatment (earlier work), which correlates closely with their higher serum requirement for proliferation. Comparison of these results with those on the interfacial effects of serum on phospholipid films suggests that at least part of the proliferation-stimulating effect of serum is mediated by changes of interfacial properties of cell membranes upon adsorption of serum proteins such as albumin. Treatment of phospholipid films with concanavalin A, an inhibitor of cell proliferation, does not result in effects on their interfacial properties correlating with those on cellular membranes. This confirms previous suggestions that the latter depends on specific binding of convanavalin A to specific carbohydrates on the cell membrane.