This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Ng, C. C. Articles by Pennefather, P. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Ng, C. C. Articles by Pennefather, P. S.

Properties of a Self-Assembled Phospholipid Membrane Supported on Lipobeads

Charlene C. Ng ^*, Yu-Ling Cheng  and Peter S. Pennefather ^*

^* Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Peter S. Pennefather, E-mail: p.pennefather{at}utoronto.ca.

The overall objective of our work was to make a hydrogel-supported phospholipid bilayer that models a cytoskeleton-supported cell membrane and provides a platform for studying membrane biology. Previously, we demonstrated that a pre-Lipobead, consisting of phospholipids covalently attached to the surface of a hydrogel, could give rise to a Lipobead when incubated with liposomes because the attached phospholipids promote self-assembly of a phospholipid membrane on the pre-Lipobead. We now report the properties of that Lipobead membrane. The lateral diffusion coefficient of fluorescently labeled phosphatidylcholine analogs in the membrane was measured by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching and was found to decrease as the surface anchor density and hydrogel crosslinking density increased. Results from the quenching of phosphatidylcholine analogs suggest that the phospholipid membrane of the Lipobead was composed mostly of a semipermeable lipid bilayer. However, the diffusional barrier properties of the Lipobead membrane were demonstrated by the entrapment of 1.5–3.0 K dextran molecules in the hydrogel core after liposome fusion. This hydrogel-supported bilayer membrane preparation shows promise as a new platform for studying membrane biology and for high throughput drug screening.