Formation process of planar lipid bilayer observed by confocal microscopy

In this paper, the formation process of planar lipid bilayer in PMMA micro-fluidic device is investigated in detail by observing distribution of fluorescent lipid molecules with the aid of confocal microscopy. In our bilayer formation process, initially thick layer (∼50μm) of lipid solution, which is stuck at the vertical section of the aperture edge, gradually thins down by applying static pressure in the upper compartment. It finally becomes a bilayer with the pressure of 200∼400Pa. It is confirmed by recording single channel current through gramicidin. The yield of bilayer formation reached 90% in maximum.