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Micromachines
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Lipid Bilayers on Chip, Volume II
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Lipid Bilayers on Chip, Volume II

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "B：Biology and Biomedicine".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2021) | Viewed by 7359

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Toshihisa Osaki

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Artificial Cell Membrane Systems Group, Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology, 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa 213-0012, Japan
Interests: solid–liquid interface; lipid bilayers; membrane transporters; biohybrid devices
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Lipid bilayers are one of the fundamental models of biological membranes. Over the past 15 years, microfluidics and MEMS technologies have been exploited for precise manipulation of the lipid materials and made great contributions to produce planar and vesicular forms of lipid membranes in a controlled and reproducible manner; for example, planar lipid bilayers were suspended at a micrometer-sized aperture fabricated by a photolithography process, supported lipid bilayers were formed on a surface-modified microfluidic channels, and lipid vesicles were produced by traversing droplets from oil to an aqueous phase. This advancement in planar membranes and vesicles has further extended their research fields in the exploration of the fundamental properties of cell membranes, creation of bottom–up synthetic cells, development of a drug screening system for cell membranes, and integration of membrane receptors for chemical sensors. Accordingly, this Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers, short communications, and review articles that focus on: (1) novel methodological developments in the formation of planar lipid bilayers or vesicles; and (2) novel applications of lipid bilayer based microdevices, including but not limited to the discovery of membrane properties, bottom–up assembly of synthetic cells/tissues, and development of cell membrane based sensors.

Dr. Toshihisa Osaki
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Lipid bilayers/lipid vesicles on chip
  • Characterization of lipid bilayers and cell membranes
  • Artificial cells/tissues with lipid membranes
  • Cell membrane-based sensors

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4785 KiB  
Article
Acetylcholinesterase Activity Influenced by Lipid Membrane Area and Surface Acoustic Waves
by Lukas G. Schnitzler, Kathrin Baumgartner, Anna Kolb, Benedikt Braun and Christoph Westerhausen
Micromachines 2022, 13(2), 287; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13020287 - 11 Feb 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1608
Abstract
According to the current model of nerve propagation, the function of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is to terminate synaptic transmission of nerve signals by hydrolyzing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) in the synaptic cleft to acetic acid (acetate) and choline. However, extra-synaptic roles, which are known [...] Read more.
According to the current model of nerve propagation, the function of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is to terminate synaptic transmission of nerve signals by hydrolyzing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine (ACh) in the synaptic cleft to acetic acid (acetate) and choline. However, extra-synaptic roles, which are known as ‘non-classical’ roles, have not been fully elucidated. Here, we measured AChE activity with the enzyme bound to lipid membranes of varying area per enzyme in vitro using the Ellman assay. We found that the activity was not affected by density fluctuations in a supported lipid bilayer (SLB) induced by standing surface acoustic waves. Nevertheless, we found twice as high activity in the presence of small unilamellar vesicles (SUV) compared to lipid-free samples. We also showed that the increase in activity scaled with the available membrane area per enzyme. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lipid Bilayers on Chip, Volume II)
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9 pages, 1263 KiB  
Article
Thermodynamic Modeling of Solvent-Assisted Lipid Bilayer Formation Process
by Hongmei Xu, Hyunhyuk Tae, Nam-Joon Cho, Changjin Huang and K. Jimmy Hsia
Micromachines 2022, 13(1), 134; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi13010134 - 15 Jan 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2146
Abstract
The solvent-assisted lipid bilayer (SALB) formation method provides a simple and efficient, microfluidic-based strategy to fabricate supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) with rich compositional diversity on a wide range of solid supports. While various studies have been performed to characterize SLBs formed using the [...] Read more.
The solvent-assisted lipid bilayer (SALB) formation method provides a simple and efficient, microfluidic-based strategy to fabricate supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) with rich compositional diversity on a wide range of solid supports. While various studies have been performed to characterize SLBs formed using the SALB method, relatively limited work has been carried out to understand the underlying mechanisms of SALB formation under various experimental conditions. Through thermodynamic modeling, we studied the experimental parameters that affect the SALB formation process, including substrate surface properties, initial lipid concentration, and temperature. It was found that all the parameters are critically important to successfully form high-quality SLBs. The model also helps to identify the range of parameter space within which conformal, homogeneous SLBs can be fabricated, and provides mechanistic guidance to optimize experimental conditions for lipid membrane-related applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lipid Bilayers on Chip, Volume II)
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11 pages, 16455 KiB  
Article
Investigation of Fusion between Nanosized Lipid Vesicles and a Lipid Monolayer Toward Formation of Giant Lipid Vesicles with Various Kinds of Biomolecules
by Koki Kamiya, Chika Arisaka and Masato Suzuki
Micromachines 2021, 12(2), 133; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi12020133 - 26 Jan 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2929
Abstract
We determined the properties of fusion between large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) and the lipid monolayer by measuring the fluorescence intensity of rhodamine-conjugated phospholipids in cell-sized lipid vesicles. The charge of LUVs (containing cationic lipids) and lipid droplets (containing anionic lipids) promoted lipid membrane [...] Read more.
We determined the properties of fusion between large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) and the lipid monolayer by measuring the fluorescence intensity of rhodamine-conjugated phospholipids in cell-sized lipid vesicles. The charge of LUVs (containing cationic lipids) and lipid droplets (containing anionic lipids) promoted lipid membrane fusion. We also investigated the formation of cell-sized lipid vesicles with asymmetric lipid distribution using this fusion method. Moreover, cell-sized asymmetric ganglioside vesicles can be generated from the planar lipid bilayer formed at the interface between the lipid droplets with/without LUVs containing ganglioside. The flip-flop dynamics of ganglioside were observed on the asymmetric ganglioside vesicles. This fusion method can be used to form asymmetric lipid vesicles with poor solubility in n-decane or lipid vesicles containing various types of membrane proteins for the development of complex artificial cell models. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Lipid Bilayers on Chip, Volume II)
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