Microfluidic Formation of Monodisperse, Cell-Sized, and Unilamellar Vesicles

摘要

Lipid vesicles are widely used as functional delivery vehicles in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics or as biochemical reactors that respond to various environmental stimuli. Furthermore, as phopholipids are an integral part of biological membranes, phospholipid vesicles are attractive materials to mimic the complex biomembrane of cells. To efficiently use vesicles for these applications, the vesicle production methods are required to simultaneously control 1) unilamellarity, 2) encapsulation efficiency, and 3) vesicle size, which should be uniform and comparable to cell size. Unilamellar vesicles are required to study and control membrane behavior and transport through incorporated membrane proteins.