Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Effects of temperature, acyl chain length, and flow-rate ratio on liposome formation and size in a microfluidic hydrodyanmic focusing device

Published

Author(s)

Justin M. Zook, Wyatt N. Vreeland

Abstract

Microfluidic hydrodynamic focusing of an alcohol/lipid mixture into a narrow fluid stream by two oblique buffer streams provides a controlled and reproducible method of forming phospholipid bilayer vesicles (i.e., liposomes) with relatively monodisperse and specific size ranges. Previous work has established that liposome size can be controlled by changing the relative and absolute flow rates of the fluids. A kinetic (non-equilibrium) theoretical description of the detergent dilution liposome formation method was developed previously, in which planar bilayer discs aggregate until they become sufficiently large to close into spherical liposomes. In this work, we use the kinetic theory to predict that the temperature should change the liposome size primarily as a result of its effect on the membrane bending elasticity modulus. In agreement with theory, our experiments show larger liposomes forming at or below the transition temperature, and a much smaller dependence of size on temperature well above the transition temperature, where the elasticity modulus is relatively constant.
Citation
Soft Matter
Volume
6
Issue
6

Citation

Zook, J. and Vreeland, W. (2010), Effects of temperature, acyl chain length, and flow-rate ratio on liposome formation and size in a microfluidic hydrodyanmic focusing device, Soft Matter, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=903474 (Accessed March 28, 2024)
Created March 21, 2010, Updated February 19, 2017