Shear- induced permeation and fusion of lipid vesicles

Anne-Laure Bernard (1, 2) , Marie-Alice Guedeau-Boudeville (1, 2) , Valérie Marchi-Artzner (3) , Thadeus Gulik-Krzywicki (4) , Jean-Marc Di Meglio (2, 5) , Ludovic Jullien (6)

1 LPMC - Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée
2 MSC - Matière et Systèmes Complexes
3 CIM - Chimie des interactions moléculaires
4 CGM - Centre de génétique moléculaire
5 LBHPC - Laboratoire de biorhéologie et d'hydrodynamique physico-chimique
6 PASTEUR - Processus d'Activation Sélective par Transfert d'Energie Uni-électronique ou Radiatif (UMR 8640)

This paper introduces a novel approach to controlling membrane permeability in free unilamellar vesicles using shearing in the presence of a detergent with a large head-group to tune pore formation. Such shear-induced permeation could offer a simple means of postencapsulating bioactive molecules to prepare vesicle vectors for drug delivery. Using UV absorption, fluorescence emission, dynamic light scattering, and electron microscopy, we investigated the membrane permeability and the morphology of unilamellar lipid vesicles (diameter in the range 50-400 nm) subjected to a shear stress in the presence of a small amount of nonionic surfactant (Brij 76). Shear-induced leakage and fusion events were observed. We analyzed the significance of the vesicle size, the shear rate, and the surfactant-to-lipid ratio for the observed phenomena. The present approach is evaluated for postloading of preformed vesicles.

Mots clés: Vesicle; Shearing; Permeation; Surfactant; Fusion; Encapsulation

Domaines: Biomécanique [physics.med-ph]

Anne-Laure Bernard, Marie-Alice Guedeau-Boudeville, Valérie Marchi-Artzner, Thadeus Gulik-Krzywicki, Jean-Marc Di Meglio, et al.. Shear- induced permeation and fusion of lipid vesicles. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2005, 287 (1), pp.298-306. ⟨10.1016/j.jcis.2004.12.019⟩. ⟨hal-00069829⟩