Issue 19, 2011

Functional liposomes and supported lipid bilayers: towards the complexity of biological archetypes

Abstract

This perspective paper provides some illustrative examples on the interplay between information gathered on planar supported lipid bilayers (SLB) and unilamellar lipid vesicles (ULV) to get an integrated description of phenomena occurring at the nanoscale that involve locally bilayered structures. Similarities and differences are underlined and critically compared in terms of biomimetic fidelity and instrumental accessibility to structural and dynamical parameters, focusing on some recent reports that either explicitly address this comparison or introducing some studies that separately investigate the same process in SLB and lipid vesicles. Despite the structural similarity on the nanoscale, the different topology implies radically different characterization techniques that have evolved in sectorial and separated approaches. The quest for increasing levels of compositional complexity for bilayered systems should not result in a loss of structural and dynamical control: this is the central challenge of future research in this area, where the integrated approach highlighted in this contribution would enable improved levels of understanding.

Graphical abstract: Functional liposomes and supported lipid bilayers: towards the complexity of biological archetypes

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
04 11 2010
Accepted
28 2 2011
First published
01 4 2011

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011,13, 8769-8782

Functional liposomes and supported lipid bilayers: towards the complexity of biological archetypes

D. Berti, G. Caminati and P. Baglioni, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 8769 DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02400G

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