Abstract
Electroformation of cell-sized lipid membrane vesicles (giant vesicles, GVs), from egg yolk phosphatidylcholine, was examined varying the shape of the counter electrode. Instead of a planar ITO (indium tin oxide) electrode commonly used, platinum wire mesh was employed as a counter electrode facing lipid deposit on a planar formation electrode. The modification did not significantly alter GV formation, and many GVs of 30–50 μm, some as large as 100 μm, formed as with the standard setup, indicating that a counter electrode does not have to be a complete plane. When the counter electrode was reduced to a set of two parallel platinum wires, GV formation deteriorated. Some GVs formed, but only in close proximity to the counter electrode. Lower electric voltage with this setup no longer yielded GVs. Instead, a large onion-like multilamellar structure was observed. The deteriorated GV formation and the formation of a multilamellar structure seemed to indicate the weakened effect of the electric field on lipid deposit due to insufficient coverage with a small counter electrode. Irregular membranous objects formed by spontaneous swelling of lipid without electric voltage gradually turned into multilamellar structure upon following application of voltage. No particular enhancement of GV formation was observed when lipid deposit on a wire formation electrode was used in combination with a large planar counter electrode.
Highlights
Large lipid membrane vesicles of a size comparable to a biological cell are known as giant vesicles (GVs) and used in various studies as a model membrane [1,2]
The electroformation was comparable with that using a planar indium tin oxide (ITO)-glass as a counter electrode [7]
The present result indicates that the counter electrode does not have to be a full plane, and this is consistent with the previous observation with a partial planar ITO counter electrode [21]
Summary
Large lipid membrane vesicles of a size comparable to a biological cell are known as giant vesicles (GVs) and used in various studies as a model membrane [1,2]. Electroformation was first studied using two platinum wires as parallel electrodes in a water-filled trough [4,5,6] In this setup, the top of a formation chamber may remain open, and physical access to forming GVs is readily available. The wire electrode setup has been conveniently used when direct manipulation of GVs formed on electrode is necessary, such as in microinjection [16] Another commonly used setup is a chamber that consists of two pieces of indium tin oxide (ITO) coated planar electrodes placed facing each other [7,9,10,11,12]. We examined electroswelling of lipid layer that was deposited on a planar ITO coated electrode using platinum wire mesh or wires as a counter electrode. Electroformation on a wire formation electrode in combination with a planar counter electrode was tested
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