Interaction of Nanoparticles with Lipid Vesicles

• Abstract

  Novel properties of nanoparticles have numerous potential technological applications but at the same time underlie new kinds of biological effects. Uniqueness of nano particles and nano materials requires a new experimental methodology in order to acquire knowledge about their toxic effect on biological systems and environment in general. Much evidence suggests that nano particles affect cell membrane stability and subsequently exert toxic effects. To explore these effects, we propose an in vitro experiment with a simple biological system, a simulation of cell membrane - lipid vesicle.

• Description

  Novel properties of nanoparticles have numerous potential technological applications but at the same time underlie new kinds of biological effects. Uniqueness of nano particles and nano materials requires a new experimental methodology in order to acquire knowledge about their toxic effect on biological systems and environment in general. Much evidence suggests that nano particles affect cell membrane stability and subsequently exert toxic effects. To explore these effects, we propose an in vitro experiment with a simple biological system, a simulation of cell membrane - lipid vesicle. Giant lipid vesicles are a promising choice due to controllability and repeatability of experimental conditions. Due to their size, which is on the same order of magnitude as the size of cells, vesicles can be directly observed under the light microscope. Vesicles\' shape changes and fluctuations have been widely investigated by various techniques, however microscopy imaging is among most common. Most researchers focus on recording single vesicles throughout the exposure period and observing changes in their morphology. Instead, we propose recording populations of vesicles at various times of exposure and calculating statistical analysis of the vesicles size and morphological distributions. The hypothesis is that different nano particles have different potential to interfere with lipid membranes. We expect that this will be manifested as vesicles\' shape transformation. Our preliminary experiments already showed that changes in populations of vesicles can be detected with this approach. Our future direction is toward improving existing approaches to capturing of images and their post processing.

• Team Members