ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2022
Sharp, localized phase transitions in single neuronal cells.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spark or Sound: How Two Differing Explanatory Strategies Impact the Debate on the Physical Nature of Neuronal Excitability.Membranes · 2026Article
- Electrodeformation of DMPC vesicle membranes near the main phase transition.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Article
- Hypothesis: bacteria live on the edge of phase transitions with a cell cycle regulated by a water-clock.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2024Article
- Article
- Nonlinear Growth Dynamics of Neuronal Cells Cultured on Directional Surfaces.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Tuning Targeted Liposome Avidity to Cells via Lipid Phase Separation.Biomacromolecules · 2023Article
- Thinking about the action potential: the nerve signal as a window to the physical principles guiding neuronal excitability.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
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Abstract
The origin of nonlinear responses in cells has been suggested to be crucial for various cell functions including the propagation of the nervous impulse. In physics, nonlinear behavior often originates from phase transitions. Evidence for such transitions on the single-cell level, however, has so far not been provided, leaving the field unattended by the biological community. Here, we demonstrate that single cells of a human neuronal cell line display all optical features of a sharp, highly nonlinear phase transition within their membrane. The transition is reversible and does not originate from protein denaturation. Triggered by temperature and modified by pH here, a thermodynamic approach strongly suggests that similar nonlinear state changes can be induced by other variables such as calcium or mechanical stress. At least in lipid membranes, such state changes are accompanied by significant changes in permeability, enzyme activity, elastic, and electrical properties.
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