Electroformation of giant liposomes from spin-coated films of lipids

This paper describes spin-coating of solutions of lipids and using the resulting thin films for electroformation of giant liposomes. Spin-coating made it possible to generate uniform films of lipids with controllable thickness over large surfaces ( > 25 cm(2)) of indium tin oxide. Establishing a range of thicknesses optimal for electroformation (25-50 nm), we demonstrate formation of giant liposomes from lipids (such as asolectin, phosphatidylserine, and phosphatidylglycerol) that do not readily form giant liposomes from traditional, droplet-derived films. We compared liposomes from a spin-coated film of lipids to liposomes formed from traditional droplet-derived films and found that spin-coated films produced larger (by factor of 2-5) and more abundant liposomes than droplet-derived films of lipids. Electroformation from spin-coated, homogenous lipid films of optimal thickness provided a reproducible way to obtain liposomes with diameters that are predominantly larger than 30 pm over the entire surface of formation. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.