Abstract
Biomimetic giant membrane vesicles, with size and lipid compositions comparable to cells, have been recognized as an attractive experimental alternative to living systems. Due to the similarity of their membrane structure to that of body cells, cell-derived giant plasma membrane vesicles have been used as a membrane model for studying lipid/protein behavior of plasma membranes. However, further application of biomimetic giant membrane vesicles has been hampered by the side-effects of chemical vesiculants and the utilization of osmotic buffer. We herein develop a facile strategy to derive giant membrane vesicles (GMVs) from mammalian cells in biofriendly medium with high yields. These GMVs preserve membrane properties and adaptability for surface modification and encapsulation of exogenous molecules, which would facilitate their potential biological applications. Moreover, by loading GMVs with therapeutic drugs, GMVs could be employed for drug transport to tumor cells, which represents another step forward in the biomedical application of giant membrane vesicles. This study highlights biocompatible GMVs with biomimicking membrane surface properties and adaptability as an ideal platform for drug delivery strategies with potential clinical applications.
Highlights
The design and construction of giant vesicles that mimic aspects of cellular structural complexity is an important line of research that has received much recent attention [1]
To clarify the efficiency of giant membrane vesicles (GMVs)-mediated drug delivery, GMVs derived from HeLa cells were loaded with curcumin and incubated with HeLa cells in the presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS, 10 %)
The unique advantage of giant membrane vesicles compared with synthetic giant vesicles is the true composition of the biological plasma membrane
Summary
The design and construction of giant vesicles that mimic aspects of cellular structural complexity is an important line of research that has received much recent attention [1]. While synthetic giant vesicles are relatively easy to prepare, they have largely failed to mimic the complex structures and functions present on the cell surface [8,9,10,11]. The preparation of giant vesicles with biomimetic membrane property is still very challenging because of the vast complexity of biological structures [12]. To address these challenges, strategies of producing giant membrane vesicles from live cells were developed
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