Salt, shake, fuse--giant hybrid polymer/lipid vesicles through mechanically activated fusion

Large (200 nm) poly(ethylene oxide)-b-poly(butadiene) polymer vesicles fuse into giant (>1 μm) vesicles with mild agitation in dilute aqueous NaCl solutions. This unusual effect is attributed to the salt-induced contraction of the poly(ethylene oxide) corona, reducing steric resistance between vesicles and, with agitation, increasing the probability of contact between the hydrophobic cores of adjacent membranes. In addition, NaCl and agitation facilitated the creation of giant hybrid vesicles from much smaller homogeneous polymersomes and liposomes. Whereas lipid vesicles do not readily fuse with each other under the same circumstances, they did fuse with polymersomes to produce hybrid polymer/lipid vesicles.