Vesicle Fusion with Artificial Bilayer Lipid Membrane Induced by Electrostatic Interaction

In order to fabricate a bio device, we demonstrated a method to control the position and amount of vesicle fusion with supported bilayer lipid membranes (s-BLMs) by employing an electrostatic attractive interaction. Vesicles containing anionic lipids selectively fused with s-BLMs containing cationic lipids, and we observed neither adsorption nor rupture of the vesicles on a SiO2 substrate. Since the positively charged s-BMLs were neutralized by anionic lipids in fused vesicles, no further fusion occurred. We can control the amount of vesicle fusion by controlling the concentration of the cationic lipids in the s-BMLs. It will be possible to use this method to control the fusion of proteoliposome and also expected to have bio device application.