Interaction between complementary liposomes: A process leading to multicompartment systems formation

Abstract

Interaction of complementary liposomes induces a series of processes, involving reorganization of their membrane lipids, which lead to the formation of large aggregates. In several cases these aggregates exhibit multicompartment structures and only primitively mimic, in some aspects at least, the multicompartmental features of cells. Similar multicompartment structures were repeatedly obtained following the interaction of a diversity of complementary liposomal pairs. Thus, a working hypothesis is proposed, according to which, molecular recognition of liposomes induces the formation of multicompartment structures. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.