Preparation of vesicles from nonphospholipid amphiphiles.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the properties and preparation of lipid vesicles from the simplest kinds of amphiphilic compounds. It addresses issues of stability, permeability, and encapsulation of macromolecules and shows how such vesicles can be used to encapsulate functional enzymes. The chapter also describes how these vesicles are related to naturally occurring substances, particularly the vesicular membranes that are produced from ancient organic compounds present in carbonaceous meteorites. Self-reproduction is an essential property of living systems. When a primitive cell was able to replicate its encapsulated macromolecular components, an increase of its membrane area was necessary to accommodate the internal growth. To model this evolutionary step, fatty acid vesicle systems have been designed successfully, using anhydride derivatives as a source of additional membrane amphiphiles. The prebiotic availability of fatty acids or their precursors and their properties of encapsulation, high permeability, and membrane growth make them ideal model systems for investigating primitive forms of life.

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