Preparation of Giant Vesicles Using Water-in-Oil Emulsion Toward Construction of Vesicle-Based Artificial Cells

Abstract

Giant vesicle (GV), that is closed lipid bilayer membrane with the diameter larger than 1 μm, has drawn much attention as a cell membrane model because their membrane structure and size are similar to those of cell membranes. Conventional methods of the GV formation are based on the self-organization of bilayers and water (with water soluble substances), so that it is not easy to regulate the distribution of lamellarity of GVs in a butch. In this review, GV preparation by the centrifuga-tion of a water-in-oil emulsion is introduced. This method af fords us GVs with high uniformness in its lamellarity. Fur ther applications of GV toward a novel bioreactor or a bioimaging probe with imaging contrast agent or functional membrane molecules are described.