Aggregation of liposomes induced by calcium: a structural and kinetic study

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2007 Feb;75(2 Pt 1):021912. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.75.021912. Epub 2007 Feb 21.

Abstract

In this work, the calcium-induced aggregation of phosphatidylserine liposomes is probed by means of the analysis of the kinetics of such process as well as the aggregate morphology. This novel characterization of liposome aggregation involves the use of static and dynamic light-scattering techniques to obtain kinetic exponents and fractal dimensions. For salt concentrations larger than 5mM, a diffusion-limited aggregation regime is observed and the Brownian kernel properly describes the time evolution of the diffusion coefficient. For slow kinetics, a slightly modified multiple contact kernel is required. In any case, a time evolution model based on the numerical resolution of Smoluchowski's equation is proposed in order to establish a theoretical description for the aggregating system. Such a model provides an alternative procedure to determine the dimerization constant, which might supply valuable information about interaction mechanisms between phospholipid vesicles.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Calcium / chemistry*
  • Colloids / chemistry*
  • Computer Simulation
  • Diffusion
  • Kinetics
  • Liposomes / chemistry*
  • Models, Chemical*
  • Models, Molecular*
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Nephelometry and Turbidimetry / methods*
  • Phospholipids / chemistry*

Substances

  • Colloids
  • Liposomes
  • Phospholipids
  • Calcium