Greene Adrienne C, Henderson Ian M, Gomez Andrew, Paxton Walter F, VanDelinder Virginia, Bachand George D
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America.
Center for Materials Science and Engineering, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2016 Jul 13;11(7):e0158729. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158729. eCollection 2016.
Polymersomes are being widely explored as synthetic analogs of lipid vesicles based on their enhanced stability and potential uses in a wide variety of applications in (e.g., drug delivery, cell analogs, etc.). Controlled formation of giant polymersomes for use in membrane studies and cell mimetic systems, however, is currently limited by low-yield production methodologies. Here, we describe for the first time, how the size distribution of giant poly(ethylene glycol)-poly(butadiene) (PEO-PBD) polymersomes formed by gel-assisted rehydration may be controlled based on membrane fluidization. We first show that the average diameter and size distribution of PEO-PBD polymersomes may be readily increased by increasing the temperature of the rehydration solution. Further, we describe a correlative relationship between polymersome size and membrane fluidization through the addition of sucrose during rehydration, enabling the formation of PEO-PBD polymersomes with a range of diameters, including giant-sized vesicles (>100 μm). This correlative relationship suggests that sucrose may function as a small molecule fluidizer during rehydration, enhancing polymer diffusivity during formation and increasing polymersome size. Overall the ability to easily regulate the size of PEO-PBD polymersomes based on membrane fluidity, either through temperature or fluidizers, has broadly applicability in areas including targeted therapeutic delivery and synthetic biology.
基于其增强的稳定性以及在多种应用（如药物递送、细胞模拟物等）中的潜在用途，聚合物囊泡作为脂质囊泡的合成类似物正受到广泛探索。然而，用于膜研究和细胞模拟系统的巨型聚合物囊泡的可控形成目前受到低产量生产方法的限制。在此，我们首次描述了如何基于膜流化作用来控制通过凝胶辅助复水形成的巨型聚（乙二醇）-聚（丁二烯）（PEO-PBD）聚合物囊泡的尺寸分布。我们首先表明，通过提高复水溶液的温度，可以很容易地增加PEO-PBD聚合物囊泡的平均直径和尺寸分布。此外，我们描述了在复水过程中通过添加蔗糖，聚合物囊泡尺寸与膜流化之间的相关关系，从而能够形成一系列直径的PEO-PBD聚合物囊泡，包括巨型囊泡（>100μm）。这种相关关系表明，蔗糖在复水过程中可能起到小分子流化剂的作用，增强形成过程中聚合物的扩散率并增加聚合物囊泡的尺寸。总体而言，基于膜流动性，通过温度或流化剂轻松调节PEO-PBD聚合物囊泡尺寸的能力在靶向治疗递送和合成生物学等领域具有广泛的适用性。
