An Ising-like model for monolayer-monolayer coupling in lipid bilayers

Abstract

We have proposed the Ising bilayer model to study the domain growth dynamics in lipid bilayers. Interactions within and between layers are adopted from recent experimental and theoretical data. We investigate the effects of the mismatch area on the domain coarsening dynamics in both symmetric and asymmetric lipid bilayers. To explore domain coarsening, we used the Monte Carlo (MC) method with a standard Kawasaki dynamics to simulate the systems. The results show that domains on both layers grow following a power-law and that the domains grow slower when the mismatch areas are increased. © 2013 The Korean Physical Society.