title: Preparation of Giant Vesicles Encapsulating Microspheres by Centrifugation of a Water-in-oil Emulsion.
abstract: The constructive biology and the synthetic biology approach to creating artificial life involve the bottom-up assembly of biological or nonbiological materials. Such approaches have received considerable attention in research on the boundary between living and nonliving matter and have been used to construct artificial cells over the past two decades. In particular, Giant Vesicles (GVs) have often been used as artificial cell membranes. In this paper, we describe the preparation of GVs encapsulating highly packed microspheres as a model of cells containing highly condensed biomolecules. The GVs were prepared by means of a simple water-in-oil emulsion centrifugation method. Specifically, a homogenizer was used to emulsify an aqueous solution containing the materials to be encapsulated and an oil containing dissolved phospholipids, and the resulting emulsion was layered carefully on the surface of another aqueous solution. The layered system was then centrifuged to generate the GVs. This powerful method was used to encapsulate materials ranging from small molecules to microspheres.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University; natsumey@fc.jwu.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Yuno
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Natsume
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioorganization Research, Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences.
authors.forename: Hsin-I
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioorganization Research, Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University.
authors.forename: Kazumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Itoh
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioorganization Research, Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioorganization Research, Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences; Department of Life and Coordination-Complex Molecular Science, Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences; Research Center for Complex Systems Biology, The University of Tokyo; kkurihara@ims.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Kensuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kurihara
mesh_terms: D002498:Centrifugation / Q000379:methods*; D004655:Emulsions / Q000737:chemistry*; D008863:Microspheres; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D004655:Emulsions; D010743:Phospholipids; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes; D014867:Water