Measuring the lamellarity of giant lipid vesicles with differential interference contrast microscopy

McPhee, Craig, Zoriniants, G., Langbein, Wolfgang Werner ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9786-1023 and Borri, Paola ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7873-3314 2013. Measuring the lamellarity of giant lipid vesicles with differential interference contrast microscopy. Biophysical Journal 105 (6) , pp. 1414-1420. 10.1016/j.bpj.2013.07.048

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Abstract

Giant unilamellar vesicles are a widely utilized model membrane system, providing free-standing bilayers unaffected by support-induced artifacts. To measure the lamellarity of such vesicles, fluorescence microscopy is one commonly utilized technique, but it has the inherent disadvantages of requiring lipid staining, thereby affecting the intrinsic physical and chemical properties of the vesicles, and it requires a calibration by statistical analysis of a vesicle ensemble. Herein we present what we believe to be a novel label-free optical method to determine the lamellarity of giant vesicles based on quantitative differential interference contrast (qDIC) microscopy. The method is validated by comparison with fluorescence microscopy on a statistically significant number of vesicles, showing correlated quantization of the lamellarity. Importantly, qDIC requires neither sample-dependent calibration nor sample staining, and thus can measure the lamellarity of any giant vesicle without additional preparation or interference with subsequent investigations. Furthermore, qDIC requires only a microscope equipped with differential interference contrast and a digital camera.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Biosciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QD Chemistry
Publisher:	Biophysical Society
ISSN:	0006-3495
Funders:	EPSRC, BBSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2023 16:36
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/51855

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