Impedance Analysis of Agar-supported Bilayer Lipid Membranes Modified with Alamenthicin

The aim of the work was to study an agar-supported lipid bilayer membrane (s-BLM) by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). S-BLMs with high electrical resistance satisfy the criteria of ease and reproducibility of preparation, long-term stability, and low sensitivity to the electrical and mechanical disturbances, which enables their application in microchip technology. The insertion of polypeptide alamethicin (Ala) after the formation of s-BLM was used to corroborate the formation of a bilayer and show the applicability of agar s-BLM for measurement of ion channel activity. Ala is able to form spontaneously stable voltage gated ionic channels. An equivalent electrical circuit was used for analysis and extraction of main membrane parameters from impedance data.