Giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are widely used as model systems for biological membranes to study membrane-related processes in a precisely controlled in vitro environment, owing to their biophysical properties. The classical technique for the formation of giant liposomes starts with the dissolution of lipids or lipid mixtures in an organic solvent, which is then deposited as a thin lipid solution film on a support substrate. In this study, we present a comprehensive analysis investigating the effect of different lipid compositions on the generation of GUVs from preformed liposomes under non-ionic and ionic conditions. For all liposome types tested, the electroformation process, whether performed on indium tin oxide-coated glass slides or platinum wires, consistently produced GUVs that typically ranged in size from 5 to 20 μm. However, the yield of GUVs varied depending on the specific non-ionic or ionic conditions and the lipid composition of the preformed liposomes used. In general, the resulting population of giant vesicles was predominantly characterised by the presence of unilamellar and multivesicular vesicles. These findings have the potential to improve the refinement of protocol parameters for the formation of GUVs containing membrane proteins and for the study of the effects of lipid composition on membrane protein activity.

由于其生物物理特性，巨型单层囊泡（GUV）被广泛用作生物膜的模型系统，以研究精确控制的体外环境中的膜相关过程。形成巨型脂质体的经典技术首先将脂质或脂质混合物溶解在有机溶剂中，然后将其作为脂质溶液薄膜沉积在支撑基底上。在这项研究中，我们提出了一项综合分析，研究不同脂质成分对非离子和离子条件下预制脂质体生成 GUV 的影响。对于所有测试的脂质体类型，电铸过程，无论是在氧化铟锡涂层的载玻片上还是在铂丝上进行，都能一致地产生尺寸通常为 5 至 20 μm 的 GUV。然而，GUV 的产率根据特定的非离子或离子条件以及所用预制脂质体的脂质组成而变化。一般来说，所产生的巨型囊泡群体的主要特征是单层和多囊泡的存在。这些发现有可能改进方案参数的细化，以形成含有膜蛋白的 GUV，并研究脂质成分对膜蛋白活性的影响。