Analysis of Inner Content and Phospholipid Membrane Fusion during Two Step Freezing Induced Liposome Fusion.

ABSTRACT: Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), which are comparable in size to living cells, can serve as artificial cell models by encapsulating biochemical reactions such as transcription and translation within their phospholipid bilayers. However, because these lipid membranes are impermeable to macromolecules, the encapsulated reactions are limited by substrate depletion, halting over time. To address this limitation, repeated freeze-thaw (F/T) cycles have been shown to promote vesicle fusion, thereby replenishing internal contents and enabling sustained reactions inside GUVs. Fusion of GUVs by the F/T method is typically attributed to membrane rupture caused by internal volume expansion during freezing and subsequent membrane reassembly during thawing. In this study, we discovered that subjecting

SUBMITTER: Agaki Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12824731 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature