Lipid loss and compositional change during preparation of simple two-component liposomes.

Liposomes are used as model membranes in many scientific fields. Various methods exist to prepare liposomes, but common procedures include thin-film hydration followed by extrusion, freeze-thaw, and/or sonication. These procedures can produce liposomes at specific concentrations and lipid compositions, and researchers often assume that the concentration and composition of their liposomes are similar or identical to what would be expected if no lipid loss occurred.

Lipid loss and compositional change during preparation of liposomes by common biophysical methods.

Liposomes are widely used as model lipid membrane platforms in many fields, ranging from basic biophysical studies to drug delivery and biotechnology applications. Various methods exist to prepare liposomes, but common procedures include thin-film hydration followed by extrusion, freeze-thaw, and/or sonication. These procedures have the potential to produce liposomes at specific concentrations and membrane compositions, and researchers often assume that the concentration and composition of their liposomes are similar to, if not identical, to what would be expected if no lipid loss occurred during preparation.

mechanotransduction: Effect of acute exercise on the metabolomic profiles of mouse synovial fluid.

Objective: Exercise is known to induce beneficial effects in synovial joints. However, the mechanisms underlying these are unclear. Synovial joints experience repeated mechanical loading during exercise.

Choice of buffer in mobile phase can substantially alter peak areas in quantification of lipids by HPLC-ELSD.

Evaporative light scattering detectors (ELSD) are commonly used with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to separate and quantify lipids, which are typically not easily detectable by more conventional methods such as UV-visible detectors. In many HPLC-ELSD methods to analyze lipids, a volatile buffer is included in the mobile phase to control the pH and facilitate separation between lipid species. Here, we report an unintended effect that buffer choice can have in HPLC-ELSD analysis of lipids - the identity and concentration of the buffer can substantially influence the resulting ELSD peak areas.

Viral Size Modulates Sendai Virus Binding to Cholesterol-Stabilized Receptor Nanoclusters.

Binding to the host membrane is the initial infection step for animal viruses. Sendai virus (SeV), the model respirovirus studied here, utilizes sialic-acid-conjugated glycoproteins and glycolipids as receptors for binding. In a previous report studying single virus binding to supported lipid bilayers (SLBs), we found a puzzling mechanistic difference between the binding of SeV and influenza A virus (strain X31, IAV).