Investigation of Fusion between Nanosized Lipid Vesicles and a Lipid Monolayer toward Formation of Giant Lipid Vesicles with Various Kinds of Biomolecules

• Main Authors: Koki Kamiya, Chika Arisaka, Masato Suzuki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-01-01
• Series: Micromachines
• Subjects: artificial cell membrane; giant lipid vesicles; vesicle fusion; asymmetric lipid bilayer; microfluidic device
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/12/2/133

We determined the properties of fusion between large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) and the lipid monolayer by measuring the fluorescence intensity of rhodamine-conjugated phospholipids in cell-sized lipid vesicles. The charge of LUVs (containing cationic lipids) and lipid droplets (containing anionic lipids) promoted lipid membrane fusion. We also investigated the formation of cell-sized lipid vesicles with asymmetric lipid distribution using this fusion method. Moreover, cell-sized asymmetric ganglioside vesicles can be generated from the planar lipid bilayer formed at the interface between the lipid droplets with/without LUVs containing ganglioside. The flip-flop dynamics of ganglioside were observed on the asymmetric ganglioside vesicles. This fusion method can be used to form asymmetric lipid vesicles with poor solubility in<i> n</i>-decane or lipid vesicles containing various types of membrane proteins for the development of complex artificial cell models.