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Destabilizing Giant Vesicles with Electric Fields: An Overview of Current Applications

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Abstract

This review presents an overview of the effects of electric fields on giant unilamellar vesicles. The application of electrical fields leads to three basic phenomena: shape changes, membrane breakdown, and uptake of molecules. We describe how some of these observations can be used to measure a variety of physical properties of lipid membranes or to advance our understanding of the phenomena of electropermeabilization. We also present results on how electropermeabilization and other liposome responses to applied fields are affected by lipid composition and by the presence of molecules of therapeutic interest in the surrounding solution.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge financial support from the Institut Universitaire de France, ANR-PCV (project CMIDT-139888), and the Association Française contre les Myopathies. We thank our colleagues C. Favard, J. Tessié, L. Wasungu, N. Mignet, M. Bureau, and D. Scherman for many useful discussions and interactions on the subjects discussed in this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, CNRS UMR 5152, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

    Thomas Portet, Vincent Démery & David S. Dean

  2. Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR 5089 and Université Paul Sabatier, 205 route de Narbonne, BP 64182, 31077, Toulouse, France

    Thomas Portet, Chloé Mauroy, Thibault Houles, Jean-Michel Escoffre & Marie-Pierre Rols

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  1. Thomas Portet
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  2. Chloé Mauroy
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  3. Vincent Démery
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  4. Thibault Houles
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  5. Jean-Michel Escoffre
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  6. David S. Dean
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  7. Marie-Pierre Rols
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Correspondence to Marie-Pierre Rols.

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Thomas Portet and Chloé Mauroy contributed equally to this review.

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Portet, T., Mauroy, C., Démery, V. et al. Destabilizing Giant Vesicles with Electric Fields: An Overview of Current Applications. J Membrane Biol 245, 555–564 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-012-9467-x

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