Giant Vesicles: Preparations and Applications

Walde, Peter; Cosentino, Katia; Engel, Helen; Stano, Pasquale

doi:10.1002/cbic.201000010

Cited by 682 publications

(699 citation statements)

References 224 publications

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“…Natural lipids form small unilamellar spherical vesicles spontaneously upon suspension in aqueous solutions due to the favorable packing parameter of phospholipids (74,75). Soft matter and protocell research have provided many ways to fabricate cell-like compartments with pure amphiphilic molecules (76)(77)(78). Some of these methods are used to encapsulate pure proteins inside phospholipid vesicles to study cellular processes.…”

Section: Bottom-up Development Of An Artificial Cell: Broad Consideramentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an artificial cell, from self-organization to computation and self-reproduction

Noireaux¹,

Maeda

Libchaber

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

296

267

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This article describes the state and the development of an artificial cell project. We discuss the experimental constraints to synthesize the most elementary cell-sized compartment that can self-reproduce using synthetic genetic information. The original idea was to program a phospholipid vesicle with DNA. Based on this idea, it was shown that in vitro gene expression could be carried out inside cell-sized synthetic vesicles. It was also shown that a couple of genes could be expressed for a few days inside the vesicles once the exchanges of nutrients with the outside environment were adequately introduced. The development of a cell-free transcription/translation toolbox allows the expression of a large number of genes with multiple transcription factors. As a result, the development of a synthetic DNA program is becoming one of the main hurdles. We discuss the various possibilities to enrich and to replicate this program. Defining a program for self-reproduction remains a difficult question as nongenetic processes, such as molecular self-organization, play an essential and complementary role. The synthesis of a stable compartment with an active interface, one of the critical bottlenecks in the synthesis of artificial cell, depends on the properties of phospholipid membranes. The problem of a self-replicating artificial cell is a long-lasting goal that might imply evolution experiments.Defining Life Since Schrödinger's classic book What Is Life? (1), the definition of life has always been a puzzle with a variety of partial answers, none really satisfying. One answer is that life is a coded system with mutation and error correction (2). The information is encoded into DNA (the genotype) and the genetic code allows translating this information into proteins (the phenotype). The genetic code is universal, and the genome can support mutations, recombination, duplication, and partial transfer from organisms to organisms. Error correction limits the risk of melting the information into random sequences. This is fine, but life is also metabolism with a permanent absorption and transformation of nutrients from the environment (3). A constant flux of energy is needed to sustain the operation of this living dynamical system out of equilibrium. But life is also self-reproduction (4). Cells originate from preexisting cells by cell division. The DNA genome is replicated, the cell self-reproduces as well as the complete organism. Is self-reproduction a constraint of evolution present at each step and imposing severe design constraints or a possible definition of life? Or is life an emerging phenomenon resulting from complex chemical reactions, developing networks and cycles until, at a certain critical size of this network, life starts as an emerging property (5)? Within this approach, life is a dynamical system where signal to noise is just marginal; a living system positions itself at the edge of chaos. Finally the only generally accepted theme is that life is the result of evolution, natural selection, and adaptation (6), a...

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Section: Bottom-up Development Of An Artificial Cell: Broad Consideramentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of an artificial cell, from self-organization to computation and self-reproduction

Noireaux¹,

Maeda

Libchaber

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

296

267

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“…32,33 Microfluidics offers a route to create uniform liposomes templated from either water-in-oil (W/O) single emulsion drops [34][35][36][37] or water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsion drops. 22,[38][39][40][41][42] In the single emulsion method, lipid-stabilized W/O emulsion drops are prepared and subsequently transferred to a water phase via centrifugation or specially designed microchannels, 34,35,37 to obtain lipid bilayers.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…33 By contrast, double emulsion-templated methods based on fluid shearing, 22,38,39 pulsed jetting 40,41 or transient membrane ejection, 42 offer robust high-throughput production of monodisperse vesicles with high encapsulation efficiency. 32,33 However, these strategies crucially rely on the ultrathin-shelled double emulsions as templates, requiring more complicated device design and routes that are sensitive to the operating conditions or the materials being used, and the resultant vesicles often contain lipid reservoirs or residual oil in the lipid membranes. 39,40 Although recent work has improved the quality of the liposomes via emulsion dewetting, 22 the complete dewetting of double emulsion drops to form liposomes has not been studied in detail.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Monodisperse Uni- and Multicompartment Liposomes

Deng¹,

Yelleswarapu²,

Huck³

2016

J. Am. Chem. Soc.

230

228

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Liposomes are self-assembled phospholipid vesicles with great potential in fields ranging from targeted drug delivery to artificial cells. The formation of liposomes using microfluidic techniques has seen considerable progress, but the liposomes formation process itself has not been studied in great detail. As a result, high throughput, high-yielding routes to monodisperse liposomes with multiple compartments have not been demonstrated. Here, we report on a surfactant-assisted microfluidic route to uniform, single bilayer liposomes, ranging from 25 µm to 190 µm, and with or without multiple inner compartments. The key of our method is the precise control over the developing interfacial energies of complex W/O/W emulsion systems during liposome formation, which is achieved via an additional surfactant in the phase. The liposomes consist of single bilayers, as demonstrated by nanopore formation experiments and confocal fluoresce microscopy, and they can act as compartments for cell-free gene expression. The microfluidic technique can be expanded to create liposomes with a multitude of coupled compartments, opening routes to networks of multistep microreactors.There has been a significant interest in the use of liposomes, self-assembled phospholipid vesicles composed of bilayer membranes, in fields as diverse as targeted drug delivery, 1,2 membrane protein science, 3-5 bioreactors 6-8 and biosensors. 9,10 Cell-sized liposomes that encapsulate biomolecules and incorporate biological functions provide a versatile mimic of certain aspects of living cells, as exemplified by work showing RNA replication, [11][12][13] in vitro transcription and translation of gene networks, 6,14-16 and organization of cell division machinery in liposomes. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]

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“…La physique de la matière molle et la recherche médicale ont fourni de nombreuses méthodes pour préparer des liposomes de taille cellulaire (1-10 μm de diamètre) [32]. Ces méthodes fonctionnent bien pour des solutions aqueuses diluées.…”

Section: La Compartimentationunclassified

Construction de cellules synthétiques

Noireaux

2015

Med Sci (Paris)

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Giant Vesicles: Preparations and Applications

Cited by 682 publications

References 224 publications

Development of an artificial cell, from self-organization to computation and self-reproduction

Development of an artificial cell, from self-organization to computation and self-reproduction

Monodisperse Uni- and Multicompartment Liposomes

Construction de cellules synthétiques

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