Electroformation of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles : Investigating Vesicle Fusion versus Bulge Merging
Partially ordered stacks of phospholipid bilayers on a flat substrate can be obtained by the evaporation of a spread droplet of phospholipid-in-chloroform solution. When exposed to an aqueous buffer, numerous micrometric buds populate the bilayers, grow in size over minutes, and eventually detach, f...
| Veröffentlicht in: | Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. - 1992. - 32(2016), 32 vom: 16. Aug., Seite 8123-30 |
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| Weitere Verfasser: | , , |
| Format: | Online-Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | English |
| Veröffentlicht: |
2016
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| Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk: | Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids |
| Schlagworte: | Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't |
| Zusammenfassung: | Partially ordered stacks of phospholipid bilayers on a flat substrate can be obtained by the evaporation of a spread droplet of phospholipid-in-chloroform solution. When exposed to an aqueous buffer, numerous micrometric buds populate the bilayers, grow in size over minutes, and eventually detach, forming the so-called liposomes or vesicles. While observation of vesicle growth from a hydrated lipid film under an optical microscope suggests numerous events of vesicle fusion, there is little experimental evidence for discriminating between merging of connected buds, i.e., a shape transformation that does not imply bilayer fusion and real membrane fusion. Here, we use electroformation to grow giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) from a stack of lipids in a buffer containing either (i) nanometric liposomes or (ii) previously prepared GUVs. By combining different fluorescent labels of the lipids in the substrate and in the solution, and by performing a fluorescence analysis of the resulting GUVs, we clearly demonstrate that merging of bulges is the essential pathway for vesicle growth in electroformation |
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| Beschreibung: | Date Completed 01.06.2018 Date Revised 01.06.2018 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1520-5827 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b01679 |