  Blebs are balloon-shaped membrane protrusions that form during many
physiological processes. Using computer simulation of a particle-based model
for self-assembled lipid bilayers coupled to an elastic meshwork, we
investigated the phase behavior and kinetics of blebbing. We found that blebs
form for large values of the ratio between the areas of the bilayer and the
cytoskeleton. We also found that blebbing can be induced when the cytoskeleton
is subject to a localized ablation or a uniform compression. The results
obtained are qualitatively in agreement with the experimental evidence and the
model opens up the possibility to study the kinetics of bleb formation in
detail.
