Lipid rafts are membrane microdomains enriched with cholesterol, glycosphingolipids, and proteins. Although they are broadly presumed to play a pivotal role in various cellular functions, there are still fierce debates about the composition, functions, and even existence of lipid rafts. Here high-resolution and time-lapse in situ atomic force microscopy is used to directly confirm the existence of lipid rafts in native erythrocyte membranes. The results indicate some important aspects of lipid rafts: most of the lipid rafts are in the size range of 100-300 nm and have irregular shape; the detergent-resistant membranes consist of cholesterol microdomains and are not likely the same as the lipid rafts; cholesterol contributes significantly to the formation and stability of the protein domains; and Band III is an important protein of lipid rafts in the inner leaflet of erythrocyte membranes, indicating that lipid rafts are exactly the functional domains in plasma membrane. This work provides direct evidence of the presence, size, and main constitutive protein of lipid rafts at a resolution of a few nanometers, which will pave the way for studying their structure and functions in detail.
Hypoxic tumor microenvironment is the bottleneck of the conventional photodynamic therapy (PDT) and significantly weakens the overall therapeutic efficiency. Herein, versatile metal–organic framework (MOF) nanosheets (DBBC‐UiO) comprised of bacteriochlorin ligand and Hf 6 (µ 3 ‐O) 4 (µ 3 ‐OH) 4 clusters to address this tricky issue are designed. The resulting DBBC‐UiO enables numerous superoxide anion radical (O 2 −• ) generation via a type I mechanism with a 750 nm NIR‐laser irradiation, part of which transforms to high toxic hydroxyl radical (OH•) and oxygen (O 2 ) through superoxide dismutase (SOD)‐mediated catalytic reactions under severe hypoxic microenvironment (2% O 2 ), and the partial recycled O 2 enhances O 2 −• generation. Owing to the synergistic radicals, it realizes advanced antitumor performance with 91% cell mortality against cancer cells in vitro, and highly efficient hypoxic solid tumor ablation in vivo. It also accomplishes photoacoustic imaging (PAI) for cancer diagnosis. This DBBC‐UiO, taking advantage of superb penetration depth of the 750 nm laser and distinct antihypoxia activities, offers new opportunities for PDT against clinically hypoxic cancer.
Photonic shape memory (SM) polymers based on liquid crystalline blue phase (BP) films have been fabricated by self-assembly and subsequent photopolymerization of liquid-crystal mixtures. These freestanding BP films exhibit narrow photonic band gaps and high reflectivity in the visible wavelength range. Multiple blue-shift colors are achieved by SM programming process at different mechanical pressures. The blue-shift colors can be attributed to a decrease of effective BP pitch along the viewing direction caused by the compressed deformation of the BP films, which are confirmed by a three-dimensional interometric profile. The deformed BP films can recover to their original shapes and reflecting colors by heating the polymer films to temperatures above the glasstransition temperature. Quantitative relationships between the shape change and optical response are established for understanding this SM effect. What is more, the temporary photonic patterns can be reversibly written and erased for dozens of cycles without apparent degradation, making these freestanding BP films appealing as rewritable photonic papers and optical sensors.
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