Cell-Sized Confinements Alter Molecular Diffusion in Concentrated Polymer Solutions Due to Length-Dependent Wetting of Polymers.

ABSTRACT: Living cells are characterized by the micrometric confinement of various macromolecules at high concentrations. Using droplets containing binary polymer blends as artificial cells, we previously showed that cell-sized confinement causes phase separation of the binary polymer solutions because of the length-dependent wetting of the polymers. Here, we demonstrate that the confinement-induced heterogeneity of polymers also emerges in single-component polymer solutions. The resulting structural heterogeneity also leads to a slower transport of small molecules at the center of cell-sized droplets than that in bulk solutions. Coarse-grained molecular simulations support this confinement-induced heterogeneous distribution by polymer length and demonstrate that the effective wetting of the shorter

SUBMITTER: Kanakubo Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10510498 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature