Dresden 2011 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 13: Posters: Biological Membranes

BP 13.14: Poster

Monday, March 14, 2011, 17:15–20:00, P3

Electroformation of super-giant unilamellar vesicles containing cationic lipids — •Christoph Herold, Petra Schwille, and Eugene P. Petrov — Biophysics, BIOTEC, TU Dresden, Tatzberg 47/49, 01307 Dresden, Germany

Super-giant unilamellar vesicles (SGUVs) of sizes > 100 µm are a convenient model system for freestanding lipid bilayers with a negligible curvature at a scale of tens of microns. This facilitates the investigation of dynamics and conformation of molecules/polymers interacting with the non-supported membrane by means of single molecule tracking [1].

Electroformation on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) coated glass slides is a standard method to produce GUVs [2]. When applied to lipid mixtures containing cationic lipids (e.g. DOTAP, EDOPC, etc.) the standard electroformation method frequently produces GUVs with sizes not exceeding 10-20 µm, which are additionally surrounded by a dense network of lipid tubules.

We demonstrate that annealing of the ITO slides at t ∼ 150 ^∘C before the electroformation procedure allows one to reliably produce samples containing cationic SGUVs with diameters of 100 to 300 µm not contaminated by lipid tubular structures.

[1] C. Herold, P. Schwille, E.P. Petrov, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 148102 (2010)

[2] M. I. Angelova, S. Soleau, P. Meleard, J. F. Faucon, P. Bothorel, Prog. Colloid Polym. Sci. 89, 127 (1992).