Efficient Liposome Fusion to Phase-separated Giant Vesicles

Lateral phase heterogeneity in biomembranes can govern cellular functions and may serve as a platform for enrichment or depletion of membrane-anchored molecules. In this work, we address the question of how the process of membrane fusion is affected by the membrane phase state (fluid or gel) and by phase coexistence, as well as the effects of fusion-mediated incorporation of exogeneous lipids on phase separation. Our system is based on the fusion of cationic fluid large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) composed of dioleoyl trimethylammonium propane (DOTAP) and dioleoyl phosphoethanolamine (DOPE) with neutral and anionic giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) composed of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol. By changing the lipid composition of the GUVs, we modulated the phase state and charge of the different phases (charged or neutral, fluid or gel) and identified systems in which we can target fusion to specific domains on phase-separated membranes. Fusion efficiency was quantified using fluorescence microscopy-based lipid and content mixing assays, and flow chamber devices were used to assess the real-time sequence of events of the fusion process. To investigate the bilayer thermal behavior, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) experiments were performed on LUVs. The results show that fusion is extensive in single-component GUVs only for fluid and negatively charged acceptor membranes. On the other hand, in phase-separated GUVs, high fusion efficiency was observed even when the gel phase was anionic and phase separation somewhat increased the fusion efficiency. Extensive fusion led to dissolution of the gel domains as a result of extensive incorporation of lipids in the fluid state from the fusogenic liposomes. Altogether, these findings have the potential to unravel the important role of membrane phase state, phase separation, charge, and the effects of extensive fusion on membrane organization and may give insights in the regulation of the interactions between cells and liposomes that are used in drug delivery systems.