Related papers: Pulsatile lipid vesicles under osmotic stress
Biological membranes constantly change their shape in response to external stimuli, and understanding the remodeling and stability of vesicles in heterogeneous environments is therefore of fundamental importance for a range of cellular…
Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) composed of as few as three lipid species can phase separate into small-scale lipid domains with stripes and dots patterns. These patterns have been experimentally characterized in terms of how their size…
In hydrodynamic descriptions of lipid bilayers, the membrane is often approximated as being impermeable to the surrounding, solute-containing fluid. However, biological and in vitro lipid membranes are influenced by their permeability and…
We present a theory for pore dynamics of osmotically stressed vesicles. When a liposome with an internal concentration of solute is placed inside a solute-depleted medium, an osmotic flow of solvent through the lipid bilayer leads to…
The interaction of two types of vesicle systems was investigated: micrometer-sized, giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) formed from 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and submicrometer-sized, large unilamellar vesicles…
A technique for determining the permeability of a phospholipid membrane on a single giant unilamellar vesicle (GUV) is described, which complements the existing methods utilizing either a planar black lipid membrane or sub-micrometre-sized…
(200 words) Oxidation of unsaturated lipids is a fundamental process involved in cell bioenergetics as well as in cell death. Using giant unilamellar vesicles and a chlorin photosensitizer, we asymmetrically oxidized the outer or inner…
Vesicular capsules are used to carry biochemicals in biology and liposome technology. Being water-permeable with differing interior and exterior compositions, they are necessarily under osmotic stress. Recent studies have underlined the…
Pulsatile flow through compressed or defective blood vessels is a topic of fundamental importance in hemodynamics, particularly in cardiovascular research. This study examines flow dynamics within a tube with a bipolar cross section,…
Fluid membranes made out of lipid bilayers are the fundamental separation structure in eukaryotic cells. Many physiological processes rely on dramatic shape and topological changes (e.g. fusion, fission) of fluid membrane systems. Fluidity…
We study the relaxation dynamics of a compressible bilayer vesicle with an asymmetry in the viscosity of the inner and outer fluid medium. First we explore the stability of the vesicle free energy which includes a coupling between the…
We use computer simulations and a simple free energy model to study the response of a bilayer membrane to the application of a negative (compressive) mechanical tension. Such a tension destabilizes the long wavelength undulation modes of…
As solute molecules permeate into a vesicle due to a concentration difference across its membrane, the vesicle swells through osmosis. The swelling can be divided into two stages: (a) an "ironing" stage, where the volume-to-area ratio of…
In this work we demonstrate how the first order phase transition in giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) can function as a trigger for membrane fission. When driven through their gel-fluid phase transition GUVs exhibit budding or pearl…
Water activity and its relationship with interactions stabilising lamellar stacks of mixed lipid bilayers in their fluid state are investigated by means of osmotic pressure measurements coupled with small-angle x-ray scattering. The…
Viscosity is a key property of cell membranes that controls mobility of embedded proteins and membrane remodeling. Measuring it is challenging because existing approaches involve complex experimental designs and/or models, and the…
The study of interactions between biomimetic membranes and micron-sized particles is crucial for understanding various biological processes. Here, we control microparticle spontaneous engulfment by giant lipid vesicles by tuning particle…
Soluble alpha-amylases play an important role in the catabolism of polysaccharides. In this work, we show that the enzyme can interact with the lipid membrane and further alter its mechanical properties. Vesicle fluctuation spectroscopy is…
Models of active nematics in biological systems normally require complexity arising from the hydrodynamics involved at the microscopic level as well as the viscoelastic nature of the system. Here we show that a minimal, space-independent,…
We present a hydrodynamic model of spreading epithelial monolayers as polar viscous fluids, with active contractility and traction on the substrate. The combination of both active forces generate an instability that leads to nonlinear…