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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Pulling Membrane Nanotubes from Giant Unilamellar Vesicles
Published on: December 7, 2017
Loading of Vesicles into Soft Amphiphilic Nanotubes using Osmosis
Petra M Erne1, Laura S van Bezouwen2, Peter Štacko1
1Centre for Systems Chemistry, Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen (The Netherlands).
None:
The facile assembly of higher-order nanoarchitectures from simple building blocks is demonstrated by the loading of vesicles into soft amphiphilic nanotubes using osmosis. The nanotubes are constructed from rigid interdigitated bilayers which are capped with vesicles comprising phospholipid-based flexible bilayers. When a hyperosmotic gradient is applied to these vesicle-capped nanotubes, the closed system loses water and the more flexible vesicle bilayer is pulled inwards. This leads to inclusion of vesicles inside the nanotubes without affecting the tube structure, showing controlled reorganization of the self-assembled multicomponent system upon a simple osmotic stimulus.
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