Osmotic and Curvature Stress Affect PEG-Induced Fusion of Lipid Vesicles but Not Mixing of Their Lipids

Malinin, Vladimir S.
Frederik, Peter
Lentz, Barry R.

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Publication date

April 2002

DOI

10.1016/S0006-3495(02)75556-2

Publisher

The Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc.

ISSN

0006-3495

Abstract

AbstractPoly (ethylene glycol) (PEG) in the external environment of membrane vesicles creates osmotic imbalance that leads to mechanical stress in membranes and may induce local membrane curvature. To determine the relative importance of membrane stress and curvature in promoting fusion, we monitored contents mixing (CM) and lipid mixing (LM) between different sized vesicles under a variety of osmotic conditions. CM between highly curved vesicles (SUV, 26nm diameter) was up to 10 times greater than between less curved vesicles (LUV, 120nm diameter) after 5min incubation at a low PEG concentration (<10 wt%), whereas LM was only ∼30% higher. Cryo-electron microscopy showed that PEG at 10 wt% did not create high curvature contacts between memb...

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Osmotic and Curvature Stress Affect PEG-Induced Fusion of Lipid Vesicles but Not Mixing of Their Lipids

Abstract

Extracted data

Osmotic and Curvature Stress Affect PEG-Induced Fusion of Lipid Vesicles but Not Mixing of Their Lipids

Abstract

Extracted data

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