Electrostatic edge instability of lipid membranes

This paper considers the effect of electrostatics on the stability of a cha rged membrane. We show that at low ionic strength and high surface charge d ensity, repulsion between charges on the membrane renders it unstable to th e formation of holes. A free straight edge is unstable to modulations with wavelength longer than the Debye screening length. Hence, at low ionic stre ngth membranes will disintegrate into vesicles. We use these results to int erpret stable holes in red blood cell ghosts.[S0031-9007(98)08370-7].