Plain liposomes as artificial cell models or as control
Unilamellar liposomes |
Multilamellar liposome |
Plain liposomes (with no drugs encapsulated into them or no molecules attached to their surface) are used as artificial cell models. Liposomes are extensively used for studying the membrane proteins. Plain liposomes are also used in control experiments when drug encapsulated liposomes are used.
There are mainly two types of liposomes:
Unilamellar liposomes: Unilamellar liposomes have a single phospholipid bilayer sphere enclosing aqueous solution (buffer).
Multilamellar liposomes: Multilamellar liposomes have onion structures. Typically, several unilamellar vesicles will form one inside the other in diminishing size, creating a multilamellar structure of concentric phospholipid spheres separated by layers of water. Multilamellar can also be in the form of multivesicular liposomes. Multivesicular liposomes do not have the onion structure. This mean that the liposome does not consist of concentric spheres of lipids, instead it consists of many smaller non concentric spheres of lipid inside a larger liposome.
|
