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Biophysical Journal 34: 95-109 (1981)
© 1981 the Biophysical Society

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Osmotic shrinkage of giant egg-lecithin vesicles.

E Boroske, M Elwenspoek and W Helfrich

ABSTRACT

Osmotic shrinkage of giant egg-lecithin vesicles was observed by phase-contrast microscopy. The vesicles remained or became spherical when shrinking. Small and thick-walled vesicles formed visible fingers attached to the sphere. The water permeability of the single bilayer was found to be 41 micrometers/s. A variety of observations indicate that osmosis induces a parallel lipid flow between the monolayers of the bilayer, leading to a strong positive spontaneous curvature. They also suggest the formation of mostly submicroscopic daughter vesicles. The estimated coupling constant, 2 . 10(-6) mol/mol, is large enough to be biologically significant.




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A. Viallat, J. Dalous, and M. Abkarian
Giant Lipid Vesicles Filled with a Gel: Shape Instability Induced by Osmotic Shrinkage
Biophys. J., April 1, 2004; 86(4): 2179 - 2187.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Copyright © 1981 by the Biophysical Society.