Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
Institute of Chemical Biology, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 14;8(1):4564. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-22263-3.
There is increasing interest in constructing artificial cells by functionalising lipid vesicles with biological and synthetic machinery. Due to their reduced complexity and lack of evolved biochemical pathways, the capabilities of artificial cells are limited in comparison to their biological counterparts. We show that encapsulating living cells in vesicles provides a means for artificial cells to leverage cellular biochemistry, with the encapsulated cells serving organelle-like functions as living modules inside a larger synthetic cell assembly. Using microfluidic technologies to construct such hybrid cellular bionic systems, we demonstrate that the vesicle host and the encapsulated cell operate in concert. The external architecture of the vesicle shields the cell from toxic surroundings, while the cell acts as a bioreactor module that processes encapsulated feedstock which is further processed by a synthetic enzymatic metabolism co-encapsulated in the vesicle.
人们对通过用生物和合成机制对脂质囊泡进行功能化来构建人工细胞越来越感兴趣。由于其复杂性降低且缺乏进化的生化途径，与生物对应物相比，人工细胞的功能受到限制。我们表明，将活细胞封装在囊泡中为人工细胞提供了利用细胞生物化学的手段，封装的细胞在更大的合成细胞组件内作为类似于细胞器的功能作为活模块。使用微流控技术构建这种混合细胞仿生系统，我们证明囊泡宿主和封装的细胞协同作用。囊泡的外部结构将细胞与有毒环境隔离开来，而细胞充当生物反应器模块，处理封装的原料，然后由共封装在囊泡中的合成酶代谢进一步处理。
