Focused Characteristics and Effects of Light Reflected from Spherical Lipid Membrane of Giant Unilamellar Vesicles

Publication date: Available online 31 January 2020Source: Colloids and Surfaces B: BiointerfacesAuthor(s): Hai Qiao, Zixin Wei, Yiting Wang, Na Hu, Sineng Sun, Jin Bai, Liaoqiong Fang, Zhibiao WangAbstractLipid vesicle is spherical membranous structure with a concave surface on the inside. When a beam of light illuminates a lipid vesicle, the light reflected from the vesicular concave membrane can be focused to have higher intensity and generate enhanced effects. By observing and simulating light reflected from giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs), the intensity distribution of the light reflected from a spherical concave lipid membrane was investigated. The reflected light had focused characteristics. Its intensity was concentrated 10,000 times and even exceeded the intensity of incident light in a confined region, creating another effective light source in the lipid vesicle. The fluorescence quenching of sulfo-Cy5 encapsulated in spherical GUVs was stronger than that of the outside solution when irradiated by a 632.8 nm laser. When irradiated with ultraviolet light C (UVC), the damage to plasmid DNA encapsulated with spherical GUVs was greater than that of pure plasmid DNA solution and plasmid DNA mixed with lipid membrane fragments. Therefore, in addition to the effects of incident light, the focused light reflected from GUVs could generate incremental effects on encapsulated photoreactive materials if the spherical structure of the lipid membrane was maintained. These resu...

Source: Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces - February 2, 2020 Category: Biochemistry Source Type: research