Raspberry vesicles

We present a method to control the osmotic stress of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUV) and we report an original shrinkage mode of the vesicles: the volume reduction is accompanied by the formation of inverted daughter vesicles which gives the shrunk vesicles the appearance of raspberries. We analyze this peculiar shrinkage and we propose some physical origins for the observed phenomena. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V All rights reserved.