title: A quantitative analytical method to test for salt effects on giant unilamellar vesicles.
abstract: Today, free-standing membranes, i.e. liposomes and vesicles, are used in a multitude of applications, e.g. as drug delivery devices and artificial cell models. Because current laboratory techniques do not allow handling of large sample sizes, systematic and quantitative studies on the impact of different effectors, e.g. electrolytes, are limited. In this work, we evaluated the Hofmeister effects of ten alkali metal halides on giant unilamellar vesicles made of palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine for a large sample size by combining the highly parallel water-in-oil emulsion transfer vesicle preparation method with automatic haemocytometry. We found that this new quantitative screening method is highly reliable and consistent with previously reported results. Thus, this method may provide a significant methodological advance in analysis of effects on free-standing model membranes.
authors.affiliation: Center for Fundamental Living Technology (FLinT), Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. hadorn@ifk.sdu.dk
authors.forename: Maik
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hadorn
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boenzli
authors.forename: Peter Eggenberger
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Hotz
mesh_terms: D004655:Emulsions; D008672:Metals, Alkali / Q000494:pharmacology; D008954:Models, Biological; D009821:Oils; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines / Q000737:chemistry; D012492:Salts / Q000494:pharmacology; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions; D008672:Metals, Alkali; D009821:Oils; D010713:Phosphatidylcholines; D012492:Salts; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes; C028694:1-palmitoyl-2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine