Control of artificial membrane fusion in physiological ionic solutions beyond the limits of electroformation

Bong Kyu Kim, Dong-Hyun Kang, Junhyuk Woo, Wooseung Yoon, Hyunil Ryu, Kyungreem Han, Seok Chung and Tae Song Kim ()
Additional contact information
Bong Kyu Kim: Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Dong-Hyun Kang: Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Junhyuk Woo: Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Wooseung Yoon: Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Hyunil Ryu: Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Kyungreem Han: Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Seok Chung: Korea University
Tae Song Kim: Korea Institute of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Membrane fusion, merging two lipid bilayers, is crucial for fabricating artificial membrane structures. Over the past 40 years, in contrast to precise and controllable membrane fusion in-vivo through specific molecules such as SNAREs, controlling the fusion in-vitro while fabricating artificial membrane structures in physiological ionic solutions without fusion proteins has been a challenge, becoming a significant obstacle to practical applications. We present an approach consisting of an electric field and a few kPa hydraulic pressure as an additional variable to physically control the fusion, enabling tuning of the shape and size of the 3D freestanding lipid bilayers in physiological ionic solutions. Mechanical model analysis reveals that pressure-induced parallel/normal tensions enhance fusion among membranes in the microwell. In-vitro peptide-membrane assay, mimicking vesicular transport via pressure-assisted fusion, and stability of 38 days with in-chip pressure control via pore size-regulated hydrogel highlight the potential for diverse biological applications.

Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48875-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-48875-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48875-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().