Aggregation and fusion of phospholipid vesicles

Membrane fusion and aggregation of phospholipid vesicles are reviewed and discussed. The fusion process is viewed as consisting of several stages: aggregation and close apposition of the particles, destabilization, and finally, merging of the bilayers. A procedure is presented which yields both the rate constant of the dimerization (C₁₁) and the rate constant for fusion of the dimers (f₁₁), which is a direct measure of the probability that two apposed vesicles will fuse. Experimental methods used in the study of membrane fusion are reviewed, primarily with respect to their capacity to monitor the kinetics of vesicle fusion. A few kinetic studies on the mixing of aqueous contents, leakage and increase in size of fusing vesicles are presented in detail.The range of C₁₁ values for Ca²⁺-induced aggregation and fusion of small unilamellar vesicles (SUV, ～ 125 Å radius) composed of phosphatidylserine (PS) is 10⁶ to 5 × 10⁷ M^-1 in the presence of Ca²⁺ concentrations from 1.15 to 2 mM, respectively. For larger PS vesicles (LUV, ～ 500 Å radius) C₁₁ = 6.5 × 10⁷ M^-1s^-1 in the presence of 5 mM Ca²⁺. These values are in good agreement with theoretical calculations based on van der Waals and electrostatic interactions, in which binding of cations is explicitly taken into account. The rate constants of fusion, f₁₁, are 5 s^-1 for PS SUV and 0.08 s^-1 for LUV in the presence of 2 mM and 5 mM Ca²⁺, respectively. The significance of these fusion rate constants to the duration of the fusion event is discussed.Factors affecting fusion such as cations, temperature, membrane composition vesicle concentration and size are reviewed and analyzed. Di- or tri-valent cations induce fusion of acidic phospholipid vesicles (except for phosphatidylinositol) in either pure or mixed form. Among the neutral phospholipids, phosphatidylcholine (PC) inhibits but phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) sustains or enhances the fusion capacity of acidic phospholipid vesicles. Monovalent cations induce reversible aggregation of negatively charged vesicles, but they inhibit the fusion induced by divalent cations such as Ca²⁺ or Mg²⁺. Fusion of neutral phospholipid vesicles, and it occurs the cation-induced fusion of acidic phospholipid vesicles, and it occurs only at temperatures below the gel to liquid crystalline phase transition temperature Tc. This is in contrast to the acidic phospholipid vesicle fusion which is greatly enhanced when the temperature is above the Tc of the phospholipid.     

KX-ray production cross sections for heavy target elements and14N,40Ar projectiles above the coulomb barrier

KX-ray production cross sections have been measured for beams of¹⁴N at 92, 103, 115 and 180 MeV and⁴⁰Ar at 180 and 300 MeV on targets with atomic numbers ranging from 40 to 90. We find that the measured values can be well reproduced with a plane wave Born calculation, provided that corrections for the Coulomb deflection of the projectile, the increased binding energy of theK-shell electron and relativistic effects of theK-shell wave function are taken properly into account.     

Neutral pion production at 350 MeV/u in the system20Ne +27Al

π⁰ -production probability of (9± 2)· 10^{? 3} per²⁰Ne+Al reaction has been measured at 350 MeV/u using the Two Arm Photon Spectrometer TAPS. This yield is consistent with an interpolation of published π-production rates in heavy ion collisions.     

Constraints on the time scale of nuclear breakup from thermal hard-photon emission

Measured hard-photon multiplicities from second-chance nucleon-nucleon collisions are used in combination with a kinetic thermal model to estimate the breakup times of excited nuclear systems produced in nucleus-nucleus reactions at intermediate energies. The obtained nuclear breakup time for the ¹²⁹Xe + ^natSn reaction at 50 A MeV is Δτ ≈ 100-300 fm/c for all reaction centralities. The lifetime of the radiating sources produced in seven other different heavy-ion reactions studied by the TAPS experiment is consistent with Δτ ≈ 100 fm/c, such relatively long thermal photon emission times do not seemingly support the interpretation of nuclear breakup as due to a fast spinodal process for the heavy nuclear systems studied.     

Ra+ ion trapping: toward an atomic parity violation measurement and an optical clock

A single Ra⁺ ion stored in a Paul radio frequency ion trap has excellent potential for a precision measurement of the electroweak mixing angle at low momentum transfer and as the most stable optical clock. The effective transport and cooling of singly charged ions of the isotopes ²⁰⁹Ra to ²¹⁴Ra in a gas filled radio frequency quadrupole device is reported. The absolute frequencies of the transition 7s²S_1/2–7d²D_3/2 at wavelength 828 nm have been determined in ^212–214Ra⁺ with ≤19 MHz uncertainty using laser spectroscopy on small samples of ions trapped in a linear Paul trap at the online facility Trapped Radioactive Isotopes: µicrolaboratories for fundamental Physics (TRIµP) of the Kernfysisch Versneller Instituut.     

Generation and division of excitation energy in heavy-ion collisions studied by measuring charged-particle survival fractions

Charged-particle survival fractions of primary projectile-like fragments from the ⁴⁰Ar + ¹⁹⁷Au reaction at 450 MeV were measured by using a large array of 32 phoswich detectors operating in coincidence with a detector of projectile-like fragments. Differential survival fractions of the primary pickup and stripping reaction products indicate a dependence of the average excitation energy generated in the primary fragments on the direction of the mass transfer.     

Neutral meson production in relativistic heavy ion collisions

The production of ⁰ and mesons has been studied in the reactions²⁰Ne +Al at 350 MeV/u and⁴⁰Ar + Ca at 1.0 GeV/u. Rapidity distributions and transverse momentum spectra have been measured and are compared to thermal distributions.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. P. Kienle on the occasion of his 60th birthday     

Observation of Δ+→ pπ0 decay in heavy-ion collisions

Proton-π⁰ coincidences have been measured at the beam energy of 180A MeV in the reaction Ar+Ca studied by TAPS at SIS/GSI. In the proton-π⁰ invariant mass spectrum we observe a significant excess of strength above the background obtained by event mixing. We attribute this signal to the strength distribution N _Δ of the Δ baryonic resonance. No correlation is observed in the case of deuteron-π⁰ coincidences. Assuming isotropic emission of π⁰ and Δ⁺ from a midrapidity thermal source and isospin symmetry, we determined the global N _Δ/N _πratio of 0.79 ±0.30(stat) ±0.2(syst). This value indicates that most pions produced at subthreshold energy in heavy-ion reaction are mediated by the Δ-resonance. Received: 7 April 2000 / Accepted: 29 August 2000