Giant unilamellar vesicles represent a promising and extremely useful model biomembrane system for systematic measurements of mechanical, thermodynamic, electrical, and rheological properties of lipid bilayers as a function of membrane composition, surrounding media, and temperature. The most important advantage of giant vesicles over other model membrane systems is that the membrane responses to external factors such as ions, (macro)molecules, hydrodynamic flows, or electromagnetic fields can be directly observed under the microscope. Here, we briefly review approaches for giant vesicle preparation and describe several assays used for deducing the membrane phase state and measuring a number of material properties, with further emphasis on membrane reshaping and curvature.

中文翻译：

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巨型囊泡及其在评估膜相态，曲率，力学和电特性的分析中的用途。

巨大的单层囊泡代表了一种有前途且极为有用的模型生物膜系统，可用于系统测量脂质双层的机械，热力学，电和流变性质，这些性质是膜组成，周围介质和温度的函数。与其他模型膜系统相比，巨囊泡最重要的优势在于，可以在显微镜下直接观察膜对诸如离子，（大分子）分子，流体动力流或电磁场等外部因素的响应。在这里，我们简要回顾了制备大囊泡的方法，并描述了几种用于推导膜相态和测量许多材料性能的测定方法，并进一步强调了膜的重塑和曲率。