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Updated: Dec 25, 2025

Self-Assembly of Hybrid Lipid Membranes Doped with Hydrophobic Organic Molecules at the Water/Air Interface
Published on: May 1, 2020
Phospholipid Self-Assemblies Shaped Like Ancient Chinese Coins for Artificial Organelles
Chao Li1, Qingchuan Li1, Zhao Wang1
1State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 West Da-Zhi Street, Harbin 150001, China.
Abstract:
Phospholipid self-assemblies are ubiquitous in organisms. Nonspherical lipid-based proto-organelles bear the merits with structures similar to real organelles. It is still a challenge to mimic mass transport between organelles inside cells. Herein, unusual phospholipid self-assemblies shaped like ancient Chinese coins (ACC) were discovered by the recrystallization of 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine in an ethanol/water solution from 50 to 25 °C with a certain cooling rate. Their diameter and the ratio of the square edge to the disk diameter were controlled by varying ethanol percentage, lipid concentration, and cooling rate. The ACC-shaped phospholipid bicelles expanded to stacked cisterna structures in pure water, which were regarded as artificial organelles. Mass transport among organelles in a cell was mimicked via the membrane fusion of vesicle shuttles and artificial organelles, which induced cascade enzyme reactions inside artificial organelles. The ACC-shaped phospholipid assemblies provide nice platforms for the studies of cell biology and bottom-up synthetic biology.
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