Chen Mengqing, Liu Guoliang, Zhang Ming, Li Yanyan, Hong Xinlin, Yang Hengquan
College of Chemistry and Molecule Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, 030006, China.
Small. 2023 Mar;19(10):e2206437. doi: 10.1002/smll.202206437. Epub 2022 Dec 23.
The desire for exploration of cellular functional mechanisms has substantially increased the rapid development of artificial cells. However, the construction of synthetic cells with high organizational complexity remains challenging due to the lack of facile approaches ensuring dynamic multi-compartments of cytoplasm and stability of membranes in protocells. Herein, a stable coacervate-in-Pickering emulsion protocell model comprising a membraneless coacervate phase formed by poly-l-lysine (PLys) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) encapsulated in Pickering emulsion is put forward only through simple one-step emulsification. The dynamic distribution of intracellular components (coacervates in this protocell model) can be manipulated by changes in temperature or pH. This coacervate-in-Pickering emulsion protocell system exhibits repeatable cycle stability in response to external stimuli (at least 24 cycles for temperature and 3 cycles for pH). By encapsulating antagonistic enzymes into coacervates, glucose oxidase (GOx) and urease as an example, the control of local enzyme concentration is achieved by introducing glucose and urea to adjust the pH value in Pickering emulsion droplets. This hybrid protocell model with programmatically dynamic microcompartmentation and sufficient stability is expected to be further studied and applied in cellular biology, facilitating the development of lifelike systems with potential in practical applications.
对细胞功能机制探索的渴望极大地推动了人工细胞的快速发展。然而，由于缺乏简便方法来确保原细胞中细胞质的动态多隔室化和膜的稳定性，构建具有高组织复杂性的合成细胞仍然具有挑战性。在此，仅通过简单的一步乳化法，提出了一种稳定的凝聚层包裹在皮克林乳液中的原细胞模型，该模型包含由聚-L-赖氨酸（PLys）和封装在皮克林乳液中的三磷酸腺苷（ATP）形成的无膜凝聚层相。细胞内成分（此原细胞模型中的凝聚层）的动态分布可通过温度或pH值的变化来操纵。这种凝聚层包裹在皮克林乳液中的原细胞系统在响应外部刺激时表现出可重复的循环稳定性（温度至少24个循环，pH值3个循环）。通过将拮抗酶包封到凝聚层中，以葡萄糖氧化酶（GOx）和脲酶为例，通过引入葡萄糖和尿素来调节皮克林乳液滴中的pH值，从而实现对局部酶浓度的控制。这种具有可编程动态微区室化和足够稳定性的混合原细胞模型有望在细胞生物学中得到进一步研究和应用，促进具有实际应用潜力的逼真系统的发展。
