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Spontaneous lipid vesicle fusion with electropermeabilized cells
Author(s) -
Ramos Corinne,
Bonato David,
Winterhalter Mathias,
Stegmann Toon,
Teissié Justin
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(02)02676-5
Subject(s) - vesicle , liposome , exocytosis , lipid bilayer fusion , vesicle fusion , biophysics , fusion , chemistry , membrane , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , biochemistry , linguistics , philosophy , synaptic vesicle
Fusion is obtained between electropermeabilized mammalian cells and intact large unilamellar lipid vesicles. This is monitored by a fluorescence assay. Prepulse contact is obtained by Ca 2+ when negatively charged lipids are present in the liposomes. The mixing of the liposome content in the cell cytoplasm is observed under conditions preserving cell viability. Electric conditions are such that free liposomes are not affected by the external field. Therefore destabilization of only one of the two membranes of the partners is sufficient for fusion. The comparison between the efficiency of dye delivery for different liposome preparations (multilamellar vesicles, large unilamellar vesicles, small unilamellar vesicles) is indicative that more metastable liposomes are more fusable with electropulsated cells. This observation is discussed within the framework of the recent hypothesis that occurrence of a contact induced electrostatic destabilization of the plasma membrane is a key step in the exocytosis process.