Using Giant Plasma Membrane Vesicles from Cells to Form Supported Lipid Bilayers

Abstract

Previous studies have established chemical vesiculation and osmotic stress methods to obtain giant plasma membrane vesicles (GPMVs) from cells. The GPMVs are the blebs directly from the cell plasma membrane and contain most of the biological components in the plasma membrane including the lipids and the embedded membrane proteins. Being able to use GPMVs to form supported lipid bilayers can allow numerous biosensing applications. However, GPMVs do not easily rupture on conventional supports to form supported lipid bilayers because of their high protein and cholesterol contents. Here, we demonstrate the possibility to use air-water interface to break GPMVs to form supported lipid bilayers. We constructed micro-grating structured features on the support to control the air-water interface in a way so that the interface can rupture the GPMVs but does not peel off the deposited GPMV patches. The method provides us a way to form supported lipid bilayers with native plasma membrane proteins. Incorporating the built platforms with some surface analytical tools could allow us to study membrane proteins in their native environment.