Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

Transport of a cell-sized phospholipid micro-container across water/oil interface

2006; Elsevier BV; Volume: 426; Issue: 4-6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.cplett.2006.06.016

ISSN

1873-4448

Autores

Masahiko Hase, Ayako Yamada, Tsutomu Hamada, Kenichi Yoshikawa,

Tópico(s)

Micro and Nano Robotics

Resumo

When a cell-sized water droplet, with a diameter of several tens of micro meter, is placed in oil containing phospholipids, a stable cell-sized vesicle is spontaneously formed as a water-in-oil phospholipid emulsion (W/O CE) with a phospholipid monolayer. We transferred the lipid vesicle thus formed in the oil phase to the water phase across the water/oil interface by micromanipulation, which suggests that the vesicle is transformed from a phospholipid monolayer as W/O CE into a bilayer. The lipid vesicle can then be transported back into the oil phase. This novel experimental procedure may be a useful tool for creating a model cellular system, which, together with a microreactor, is applicable as a micrometer-scale biochemical reaction field.

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