Microfluidic Fabrication of Asymmetric Lipid Vesicles*

Lipid vesicles are aqueous volumes surrounded by a bilayer of lipid molecules, which are amphiphilic molecules with their head groups facing water and tail groups facing oil. These vesicles are simple models that mimic cell membranes and can be used for drug delivery. One interesting type of lipid vesicle is the asymmetric vesicle, in which its bilayer is composed of two dissimilar lipid monolayers. Importantly, all eukaryotic cell membranes exhibit this type of asymmetry and asymmetry is also proposed to enhance mechanical properties of the membrane. Here, we use microfluidics to fabricate mono disperse and highly controllable asymmetric lipid vesicles, which unlike the conventional methods that often end up with highly poly disperse samples. To achieve this, asymmetric vesicles are produced using water/oil1/oil2/water emulsions in a glass capillary device, with different lipids immersed in two different volatile oil phases. Using the asymmetric vesicles, we are trying to measure how mechanical properties are affected by this asymmetry and also how to improve the degree of asymmetry in our vesicles even more. In future, we envision asymmetric lipid vesicles could open a new door in the field lipid based drug delivery systems.