title: Efficient electroformation of supergiant unilamellar vesicles containing cationic lipids on ITO-coated electrodes.
abstract: Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) represent a versatile in vitro system widely used to study properties of lipid membranes and their interaction with biomacromolecules and colloids. Electroformation with indium tin oxide (ITO) coated coverslips as electrodes is a standard approach to GUV production. In the case of cationic GUVs, however, application of this approach leads to notorious difficulties. We discover that this is related to aging of ITO-coated coverslips during their repeated use, which is reflected in their surface topography on the nanoscale. We find that mild annealing of the ITO-coated surface in air reverts the effects of aging and ensures efficient reproducible electroformation of supergiant (diameter > 100 μm) unilamellar vesicles containing cationic lipids.
authors.affiliation: Biophysics, BIOTEC, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Herold
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chwastek
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schwille
authors.forename: Eugene P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Petrov
mesh_terms: D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004566:Electrodes; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D017971:Tin Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D017971:Tin Compounds; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes; C109984:indium tin oxide