Vesicles, giant-sized multilamellar

Liposomes occur in nature, but can also be easily synthesized in the laboratory. Depending on the preparation method used, whioh influenoes their size — in relation to the number of bilayer shells — and physical properties, liposomes are olassified as small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs, 25-50 nm), large unilamellar vesioles (LUVs, 100 nm to 1 pm), giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs, 1.0-200 pm) multilamellar vesioles (MLVs, 0.1-15 pm), and multi-vesicular vesicles (MWs, 1.6-10.5 pm) the last consists of several small vesicles. Bicelles, which contain surfactant molecules in the lipid bilayer, constitute a special type of liposome. 

Morphologically, with respect to the vesicle size and number of lamellae, it is possible to distinguish between small (S), large (L), and giant (G) uni-, oligo-, or multilamellar [U, O, ML, respectively] vesicles [Vj. Combination of these letters, 0[] ], gives rise to several widely used abbreviations for various vesicles, such as SUV, LUV, LOV, GOV, and MLV In the case when the encapsulated vesicles are not concentric, multivesicular liposomes are defined (MVL). Similar structure characterizes also DepoFoam, which consists of ca. 10 pm suspended particles with multiple interior compartments made of bifincated lipid bilayers. Structurally, they... 

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