Characterization of the emergent properties of a synthetic quasi-cellular system.

Background: The process of solutes entrapment during liposomes formation is interesting for the investigation of the relationship between the formation of compartments and the distribution of molecules inside them; a relevant issue in the studies of the origin of life. Theoretically, when no interactions are supposed among the chemical species to be entrapped, the entrapment is described by a standard Poisson process. But very recent experimental findings show that, for small liposomes (100 nm diameter), the distribution of entrapped molecules is best described by a power-law function.

Multilamellar liposomes formed by phosphatidyl nucleosides: an NMR-HR-MAS characterization.

We present an NMR investigation of multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) obtained from phosphatidyl nucleosides, 5'-(1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero(3)phospho)cytidine (1), 5'-(1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero(3)phospho)inosine (2), and their mixtures. Because of the lower stability of liposomes obtained from 2, studies have been preferentially performed in this case with mixed liposomes 2/POPC (4:1). The investigation is conducted mostly via the HR-MAS technique and the general observation is that the resolution achieved in this way is superior to that obtained in the past with small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs).