Abstract
Lipid nanotube consisting of lipid bilayer membrane has a high aspect ratio with diameter of several hundreds nanomerer. Recently we reported that the spontaneous formation of the three-dimensional lipid tubular network in the presence of various gangliosides or cholesterol. However, the network was physically fragile, and easy to dismantle into liposomes. This report describes stable lipid nanotube network formation in agarose gel and a large DNA encapsulation in the tube. Agarose solution of low-melting temperature was adopted for forming the lipid nanotube network. The agarose gel stably retained the micro network in the range of concentration from 0.5 to 1.0wt%, with lipid concentration of 1mM. The motion of single DNA molecule (T4DNA, 167kbp) entrapped in the hollow lipid tube was directly observed by fluorescence microscopy in real-time. The DNA shows unidirectional brownian motion along with the lipid nanotube. This result supports that the inner spaces of the tube allows holding large polymer molecules and limiting their movement. The stable lipid nanotube network gel connected with hydrophilic tunnels can be used for constructing a biochemical micro-reactor.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages | 4803-4804 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Publication status | Published - 2005 Dec 1 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 54th SPSJ Symposium on Macromolecules - Yamagata, Japan Duration: 2005 Sept 20 → 2005 Sept 22 |
Other
| Other | 54th SPSJ Symposium on Macromolecules |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Japan |
| City | Yamagata |
| Period | 05/9/20 → 05/9/22 |
Keywords
- Cholesterol
- Giant liposome
- Micro reactor
- Nanotube network
- Self-organization
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Engineering(all)