engleski

Algae-derived plasma membrane carriers

The development of a new generation of drug delivery systems closely resembling the living cell membrane is of interest for fundamental and applied research. The potential of the isolated plasma membrane of marine algae has not been sufficiently explored. Hypoosmotic shock in wall- less and soft algae leads to cell bursting, release of intracellular contents, spontaneous membrane rearrangement, fusion, and formation of plasma membrane vesicles in micrometer-size range. The reconstructed plasma membrane is highly permeable to anionic fluorescent dyes due to the heterogeneous distribution of nanopores revealed by atomic force microscopy. The aim of this study is to develop a protocol for plasma membrane reinforcement and to investigate the encapsulation of labeled dyes. Actin monomers (concentration from 1 to 15 µM) were added during algal osmotic shock. After the formation of plasma membrane vesicles, 40 mM of crosslinker Mg2+ was added to form the actin network. Two molecular dyes, calcein and fluorescein-labeled concanavalin A, ConA-FITC, were used to examine the permeability of the plasma membrane. Confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed that unmodified plasma membrane vesicles were spontaneously permeable to calcein and semipermeable to ConA-FITC. Actin- modified plasma membrane vesicles, on the other hand, were permeable to calcein, and impermeable to ConA-FITC. The differences in the transport of molecular dyes across the plasma membrane could be related to the size of the dyes, the specific surface interactions of ConA with glycoproteins, and the number and size of the pores.

plasma membrane vesicles ; marine microalgae ; Dunaliella tertiolecta

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