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Updated: Dec 12, 2025

Phase Behavior of Charged Vesicles Under Symmetric and Asymmetric Solution Conditions Monitored with Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: October 24, 2017
Double-mode relaxation of highly deformed anisotropic vesicles
Dinesh Kumar1,2, Channing M Richter1, Charles M Schroeder1,2,3
1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
Abstract:
Lipid vesicles are known to undergo complex conformational transitions, but it remains challenging to systematically characterize nonequilibrium membrane dynamics in flow. Here, we report the direct observation of anisotropic vesicle relaxation from highly deformed shapes using a Stokes trap. Vesicle shape relaxation is described by two distinct characteristic timescales governed by the bending modulus and membrane tension. Interestingly, the fast double-mode timescale is found to depend on vesicle deflation or reduced volume. Experimental results are well described by a viscoelastic model of a deformed membrane. Overall, these results show that vesicle relaxation is governed by an interplay between membrane elastic moduli, surface tension, and vesicle deflation.
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