Theories on structural perturbations of lipid bilayers

Structural perturbations of fluid lipid bilayers can be caused by various processes, such as the insertion of transmembrane inclusions, protein and peptide adsorption, the formation of membrane pores, or even by the transition to the inverse hexagonal phase. Theoretical concepts for their energetic description are often based on membrane elasticity theory. New insights have emerged from both applying this theory to inclusion-containing membranes and from relating membrane elasticity theory to microscopic models of perturbed lipid layers.