On-chip generation of monodisperse giant unilamellar lipid vesicles containing quantum dots

• Published in: Electrophoresis 2016-05, Vol.37 (10), p.1353-1358
• Main Authors: Park, Youn-Hee, Lee, Do-Hyun, Um, Eujin, Park, Je-Kyun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine - chemistry; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug delivery systems; Drug Liberation; Drugs; Encapsulation; Giant unilamellar lipid vesicles; Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; Lipids; Lipids - chemistry; Microdroplets; Microfluidics; Microfluidics - methods; Nanostructure; Particle Size; Quantum Dots; Spherical microdroplets; Synthesis; Unilamellar Liposomes - chemistry; Vesicles
• ISSN: 0173-0835; 1522-2683
• DOI: 10.1002/elps.201600035

Monodispersed lipid vesicles have been used as a drug delivery vehicle and a biochemical reactor. To generate monodispersed lipid vesicles in the nano‐ to micrometer size range, an extrusion step should be included in conventional hand‐shaking method of lipid vesicle synthesis. In addition, lipid vesicles as a drug carrier still need to be improved to effectively encapsulate concentrated biomolecules such as cells, proteins, and target drugs. To overcome these limitations, this paper reports a new microfluidic platform for continuous synthesis of small‐sized (∼10 μm) giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) containing quantum dots (QDs) as a nanosized model drug. To generate GUVs, we introduced an additional cross‐flow to break vesicles into small size. 1,2 ‐ dimyristoyl‐sn‐glycero ‐ 3 ‐ phosphocholine (DMPC) in an octanol–chloroform mixture was used in the construction of self‐assembled membrane. Consequently, we have successfully demonstrated the fabrication of monodispersed GUVs with 7−12 μm diameter containing QDs. The proposed synthesis method of cell‐sized GUVs would be highly desirable for applications such as multipurpose drug encapsulation and delivery.