On‐chip generation of monodisperse giant unilamellar lipid vesicles containing quantum dots. Issue 10 (23rd March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Park, Youn‐Hee; Lee, Do‐Hyun; Um, Eujin; Park, Je‐Kyun
• Is Part Of: Electrophoresis. Volume 37:Issue 10(2016)
• Page Start: 1353
• Page End: 1358
• Publication Date: 2016-03-23
• Subjects: Encapsulation -- Giant unilamellar lipid vesicles -- Microdroplets -- Microfluidics -- Spherical microdroplets; Electrophoresis -- Periodicals; Electrophoresis -- Periodicals; 541.372
• DOI: 10.1002/elps.201600035
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0173-0835

Abstract

Abstract : Monodispersed lipid vesicles have been used as a drug delivery vehicle and a biochemical reactor. To generate monodispersed lipid vesicles in the nano‐ to micrometer size range, an extrusion step should be included in conventional hand‐shaking method of lipid vesicle synthesis. In addition, lipid vesicles as a drug carrier still need to be improved to effectively encapsulate concentrated biomolecules such as cells, proteins, and target drugs. To overcome these limitations, this paper reports a new microfluidic platform for continuous synthesis of small‐sized (∼10 μm) giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) containing quantum dots (QDs) as a nanosized model drug. To generate GUVs, we introduced an additional cross‐flow to break vesicles into small size. 1, 2 ‐ dimyristoyl‐sn‐glycero ‐ 3 ‐ phosphocholine (DMPC) in an octanol–chloroform mixture was used in the construction of self‐assembled membrane. Consequently, we have successfully demonstrated the fabrication of monodispersed GUVs with 7−12 μm diameter containing QDs. The proposed synthesis method of cell‐sized GUVs would be highly desirable for applications such as multipurpose drug encapsulation and delivery.