title: Monodisperse Uni- and Multicompartment Liposomes.
abstract: Liposomes are self-assembled phospholipid vesicles with great potential in fields ranging from targeted drug delivery to artificial cells. The formation of liposomes using microfluidic techniques has seen considerable progress, but the liposomes formation process itself has not been studied in great detail. As a result, high throughput, high-yielding routes to monodisperse liposomes with multiple compartments have not been demonstrated. Here, we report on a surfactant-assisted microfluidic route to uniform, single bilayer liposomes, ranging from 25 to 190 μm, and with or without multiple inner compartments. The key of our method is the precise control over the developing interfacial energies of complex W/O/W emulsion systems during liposome formation, which is achieved via an additional surfactant in the outer water phase. The liposomes consist of single bilayers, as demonstrated by nanopore formation experiments and confocal fluorescence microscopy, and they can act as compartments for cell-free gene expression. The microfluidic technique can be expanded to create liposomes with a multitude of coupled compartments, opening routes to networks of multistep microreactors.
authors.affiliation: Radboud University , Institute for Molecules and Materials, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Nan-Nan
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Radboud University , Institute for Molecules and Materials, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maaruthy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yelleswarapu
authors.affiliation: Radboud University , Institute for Molecules and Materials, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wilhelm T S
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Huck
mesh_terms: D016503:Drug Delivery Systems; D004655:Emulsions; D008081:Liposomes / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D058608:Nanopores / Q000648:ultrastructure; D044367:Phase Transition; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions; D008081:Liposomes; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes