Autonomous Matter Department, AMOLF, Amsterdam, 1098 XG, The Netherlands.
Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, 2629 HZ, The Netherlands.
Small Methods. 2023 Dec;7(12):e2300416. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202300416. Epub 2023 Jul 18.
Creating an artificial cell from the bottom up is a long-standing challenge and, while significant progress has been made, the full realization of this goal remains elusive. Arguably, one of the biggest hurdles that researchers are facing now is the assembly of different modules of cell function inside a single container. Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) have emerged as a suitable container with many methods available for their production. Well-studied swelling-based methods offer a wide range of lipid compositions but at the expense of limited encapsulation efficiency. Emulsion-based methods, on the other hand, excel at encapsulation but are only effective with a limited set of membrane compositions and may entrap residual additives in the lipid bilayer. Since the ultimate artificial cell will need to comply with both specific membrane and encapsulation requirements, there is still no one-method-fits-all solution for GUV formation available today. This review discusses the state of the art in different GUV production methods and their compatibility with GUV requirements and operational requirements such as reproducibility and ease of use. It concludes by identifying the most pressing issues and proposes potential avenues for future research to bring us one step closer to turning artificial cells into a reality.
从底层构建人工细胞是一个长期存在的挑战，尽管已经取得了重大进展，但要完全实现这一目标仍然难以捉摸。可以说，研究人员现在面临的最大障碍之一是在单个容器内组装细胞功能的不同模块。巨大的单层囊泡 (GUV) 已成为一种合适的容器，有多种方法可用于其生产。研究充分的基于肿胀的方法提供了广泛的脂质组成，但代价是有限的封装效率。基于乳液的方法在封装方面表现出色，但仅对有限的膜组成有效，并且可能会在脂质双层中捕获残留添加剂。由于最终的人工细胞将需要符合特定的膜和封装要求，因此目前仍然没有一种适用于 GUV 形成的通用方法。本文综述了不同 GUV 生产方法的最新进展及其与 GUV 要求和操作要求（如可重复性和易用性）的兼容性。最后确定了最紧迫的问题，并提出了未来研究的潜在途径，使我们更接近将人工细胞变为现实。
