Author/Editor		Zupanc, Jernej; Valant, Janez; Dobnikar, Andrej; Kralj-Iglič, Veronika; Iglič, Aleš; Drobne, Damjana
Title		Interactions of nanoparticles with lipid vesicles: a population based computer aided image analysis approach
Type		članek
Source		Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
Publication year		2009
Volume		str. 1400-3
Language		eng
Abstract		Novel properties of nanoparticles have numerous potential technological applications but at the same time they underlie new kinds of biological effects. Uniqueness of nanoparticles and nanomaterials requires a new experimental methodology. Much evidence suggests that nanoparticles affect cell membrane stability and subsequently exert toxic effects. For this kind of research, lipid vesicles are of high value due to controllability and repeatability of experimental conditions. The aim of work presented here was to develop a computer aided analysis of lipid vesicles shape transformations. We studied a population of palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine (POPC) lipid vesicles after exposure to nanoparticles (C(60)) or a reference chemical (ZnCl(2)). With the use of computer image analysis methods, we detected differences in size distributions of vesicles in different exposure groups. Though, at the present state, we are not able to precisely identify effects of nanoparticles on shape transformations of vesicles, those incubated with nanoparticles were in average larger than those in other groups. This population based approach holds many promises for future investigation of nanoparticles-lipid vesicles, or even anoparticles-biological membranes interactions. However, in order to get reliable results, numerous images have to be analyzed which requires improved and highly automated image segmentation and analyses methods.
Descriptors		MEMBRANE FLUIDITY MEMBRANE LIPIDS MICROCHEMISTRY PARTICLE SIZE IMAGE PROCESSING, COMPUTER-ASSISTED