title: On-chip generation of monodisperse giant unilamellar lipid vesicles containing quantum dots.
abstract: Monodispersed lipid vesicles have been used as a drug delivery vehicle and a biochemical reactor. To generate monodispersed lipid vesicles in the nano- to micrometer size range, an extrusion step should be included in conventional hand-shaking method of lipid vesicle synthesis. In addition, lipid vesicles as a drug carrier still need to be improved to effectively encapsulate concentrated biomolecules such as cells, proteins, and target drugs. To overcome these limitations, this paper reports a new microfluidic platform for continuous synthesis of small-sized (∼10 μm) giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) containing quantum dots (QDs) as a nanosized model drug. To generate GUVs, we introduced an additional cross-flow to break vesicles into small size. 1,2 - dimyristoyl-sn-glycero - 3 - phosphocholine (DMPC) in an octanol-chloroform mixture was used in the construction of self-assembled membrane. Consequently, we have successfully demonstrated the fabrication of monodispersed GUVs with 7-12 μm diameter containing QDs. The proposed synthesis method of cell-sized GUVs would be highly desirable for applications such as multipurpose drug encapsulation and delivery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Youn-Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Do-Hyun
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Eujin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Um
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Je-Kyun
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D004134:Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine / Q000737:chemistry; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D065546:Drug Liberation; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D010316:Particle Size; D045663:Quantum Dots; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D008055:Lipids; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes; D004134:Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine
keywords: Encapsulation; Giant unilamellar lipid vesicles; Microdroplets; Microfluidics; Spherical microdroplets