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Updated: Mar 27, 2026

Preparation of Giant Vesicles Encapsulating Microspheres by Centrifugation of a Water-in-oil Emulsion
Published on: January 24, 2017
Asymmetrical Polyhedral Configuration of Giant Vesicles Induced by Orderly Array of Encapsulated Colloidal Particles
Yuno Natsume1, Taro Toyota2,3
1Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Japan Women's University, Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract:
Giant vesicles (GVs) encapsulating colloidal particles by a specific volume fraction show a characteristic configuration under a hypertonic condition. Several flat faces were formed in GV membrane with orderly array of inner particles. GV shape changed from the spherical to the asymmetrical polyhedral configuration. This shape deformation was derived by entropic interaction between inner particles and GV membrane. Because a part of inner particles became to form an ordered phase in the region neighboring the GV membrane, free volume for the other part of particles increased. Giant vesicles encapsulating colloidal particles were useful for the model of "crowding effect" which is the entropic interaction in the cell.
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