Membrane fusion: studies with a calcium-sensitive dye, arsenazo III, in liposomes

Fusion between vesicles, cells, or organelles may be defined as confluence of two membrane-bound compartments without access of their solutes to external milieu. To study fusion by this criterion, we have trapped the metallochromic calcium-sensitive dye, arsenazo III (AIII), partially calcium-saturated (AIII-Ca) in one population of liposomes (phoshatidylcholine 90:dicetylphosphate 10), and ethylene glycol-bis(beta-aminoethyl ether)-N,N'-tetraacetate (EGTA) in a second. In such mixtures, interaction of EGTA with AIII-Ca was measured by a large color shift from blue leads to red (decreased absorbance at 660 nm). Fusion of liposomes (but also lysis and diffusion across the membranes) was proportional to these decrements. The exogenous "fusogens," lysolecithin and retinol, were added to liposomes for 5-24 hr at 37 degrees; after rechromatography, measurements were made of total dye, fraction of dye converted from AIII-Ca to AIII, and total lipid. After correction for lysis and diffusion, lysolecithin (200 microng/ml) induced 23% fusion (volume of AIII liposomes confluent with EGTA liposomes) and retinol (300 microng/ml) induced 15%. With one molar percent cortisol (a membrane stabilizer) in the liposome membranes, fusion induced by fusogens was reduced 2-fold. Neither multi-nor unilamellar liposomes fused with each other in the absence of exogenous fusogens, despite wide variations in molar lipid ratios. Results suggest that liposome-liposome fusion is a slow process requiring exogenous fusogens, which may depend upon contributions of other membrane constituents to mimic closely the fusion of natural membranes.