title: Preparation of ready-to-use small unilamellar phospholipid vesicles by ultrasonication with a beaker resonator.
abstract: Lipid vesicles are widely used as models to investigate the interactions of proteins, peptides, and small molecules with lipid bilayers. We present a sonication procedure for the preparation of well-defined and ready-to-use small unilamellar vesicles composed of phospholipids with the aid of a beaker resonator. This indirect but efficient sonication method does not require subsequent centrifugation or other purification steps, which distinguishes it from established sonication procedures. Vesicles produced by this method reveal a unimodal size distribution and are unilamellar, as demonstrated by dynamic light scattering and (31)P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biophysics, University of Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Klingler
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biophysics, University of Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
authors.forename: Carolyn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biophysics, University of Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany.
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fiedler
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biophysics, University of Kaiserslautern, 67663 Kaiserslautern, Germany. Electronic address: mail@sandrokeller.com.
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keller
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D010743:Phospholipids; D013010:Sonication / Q000295:instrumentation*; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010743:Phospholipids; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes
keywords: Indirect sonication; Lipid membranes; Liposomes; Membrane-mimetic systems