Fluctuations of giant phospholipid vesicles with added maltoside

Blaž Mavčič(1), Blaž Babnik(1), Maša Kandušer(1), Tomaž Slivnik(1), Veronika Kralj-Iglič(2), Aleš Iglič(1)

(1)Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Tržaška 25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; (2)Institute of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Lipičeva 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

In our work we describe the fluctuations of giant unilamellar phospholipid (POPC) vesicles due to the addition of the detergent maltoside. Maltoside has been used in previous studies on erythrocytes and giant phospholipid vesicles where it was shown to induce different transformation patterns. It has been indicated that embedding of maltoside into erythrocyte membrane causes outward membrane evagination, yielding long thin protrusions which eventually separate from the cell. In phospholipid vesicles, the development of tubular protrusions on the globular part was observed after the addition of maltoside. In the presented work, giant phospholipid unilamellar vesicles were prepared by electroformation in accordance with the previously established procedure. The vesicles were observed at room temperature with phase contrast microscope and the images were recorded with the VHS system. The vesicle outlines were determined from the digital images by tracing the inner border of the white hallo surrounding the vesicle. The Fourier transformation was then applied to the sequence of images. Development of fluctuations following the addition of maltoside was observed and analyzed. The results of the analysis are compared to the fluctuation characteristics of spontaneous transformation of giant POPC vesicles without added agents.

Email: blaz.mavcic@fe.uni-lj.si

Address: Blaž Mavčič,, Faculty of electrical engineering,, University of Ljubljana, Tržaška 25,, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia