School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural and Mechanical Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602, USA.
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
Soft Matter. 2019 Nov 21;15(43):8718-8727. doi: 10.1039/c9sm01658a. Epub 2019 Sep 25.
Controlled transport within a network of aqueous subcompartments provides a foundation for the construction of biologically-inspired materials. These materials are commonly assembled using the droplet interface bilayer (DIB) technique, adhering droplets together into a network of lipid membranes. DIB structures may be functionalized to generate conductive pathways by enhancing the permeability of pre-selected membranes, a strategy inspired by nature. Traditionally these pathways are generated by dissolving pore-forming toxins (PFTs) in the aqueous phase. A downside of this approach when working with larger DIB networks is that transport is enabled in all membranes bordering the droplets containing the PFT, instead of occurring exclusively between selected droplets. To rectify this limitation, photopolymerizable phospholipids (23:2 DiynePC) are incorporated within the aqueous phase of the DIB platform, forming conductive pathways in the lipid membranes post-exposure to UV-C light. Notably these pathways are only formed in the membrane if both adhered droplets contain the photo-responsive lipids. Patterned DIB networks can then be generated by controlling the lipid composition within select droplets which creates conductive routes one droplet thick. We propose that the incorporation of photo-polymerizable phospholipids within the aqueous phase of DIB networks will improve the resolution of the patterned conductive pathways and reduce diffusive loss within the synthetic biological network.
在水相亚区网络内的受控运输为构建受生物启发的材料提供了基础。这些材料通常使用液滴界面双层 (DIB) 技术组装，将液滴粘附在一起形成脂质膜网络。可以通过增强预选择膜的通透性来对 DIB 结构进行功能化，以生成导电途径，这一策略受到自然的启发。传统上，这些途径是通过在水相溶解成孔毒素 (PFT) 来产生的。当处理更大的 DIB 网络时，这种方法的一个缺点是，在含有 PFT 的液滴周围的所有膜中都能够实现运输，而不是仅在选定的液滴之间发生。为了纠正这一限制，可以在 DIB 平台的水相中掺入光聚合磷脂 (23:2 DiynePC)，在暴露于 UV-C 光后在脂质膜中形成导电途径。值得注意的是，如果粘附的液滴都含有光响应脂质，则只有在膜中才会形成这些途径。通过控制选择的液滴内的脂质组成，可以生成图案化的 DIB 网络，从而在一个液滴厚的位置创建导电路径。我们提出，在 DIB 网络的水相内掺入光聚合磷脂将提高图案化导电途径的分辨率，并减少合成生物网络内的扩散损失。
