Theories on structural perturbations of lipid bilayers

Structural perturbations of fluid lipid bilayers can be caused by various p rocesses, such as the insertion of transmembrane inclusions, protein and pe ptide adsorption, the formation of membrane pores, or even by the transitio n to the inverse hexagonal phase. Theoretical concepts for their energetic description are often based on membrane elasticity theory., New insights ha ve emerged from both applying this theory to inclusion-containing membranes and from relating membrane elasticity theory to microscopic models of pert urbed lipid layers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. AU rights reserved.