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Updated: Nov 17, 2025

Assembly of Cell Mimicking Supported and Suspended Lipid Bilayer Models for the Study of Molecular Interactions
Published on: August 3, 2021
Manipulating Phospholipid Vesicles at the Nanoscale: A Transformation from Unilamellar to Multilamellar by an
Judith U De Mel, Sudipta Gupta, Lutz Willner1
1Jülich Center for Neutron Science (JCNS-1) and Institute of Biological Information Processing (IBI-8) Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany.
Abstract:
We investigated the influence of an n-alkyl-PEO polymer on the structure and dynamics of phospholipid vesicles. Multilayer formation and about a 9% increase in the size in vesicles were observed by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and small-angle neutron/X-ray scattering (SANS/SAXS). The results indicate a change in the lamellar structure of the vesicles by a partial disruption caused by polymer chains, which seems to correlate with about a 30% reduction in bending rigidity per unit bilayer, as revealed by neutron spin echo (NSE) spectroscopy. Also, a strong change in lipid tail relaxation was observed. Our results point to opportunities using synthetic polymers to control the structure and dynamics of membranes, with possible applications in technical materials and also in drug and nutraceutical delivery.

