Giant unilamellar vesicles containing phosphatidylinositol(4,5)bisphosphate: characterization and functionality.

ABSTRACT: Biomimetic systems such as giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are increasingly used for studying protein/lipid interactions due to their size (similar to that of cells) and to their ease of observation by light microscopy techniques. Biophysicists have begun to complexify GUVs to investigate lipid/protein interactions. In particular, composite GUVs have been designed that incorporate lipids that play important physiological roles in cellulo, such as phosphoinositides and among those the most abundant one, phosphatidylinositol(4,5)bisphosphate (PIP2). Fluorescent lipids are often used as tracers to observe GUV membranes by microscopy but they can not bring quantitative information about the insertion of unlabeled lipids. In this study, we carried out zeta-potential measurements to prove the

SUBMITTER: Carvalho K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2567945 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature