Construction of macroscopic cytomimetic vesicle aggregates based on click chemistry: controllable vesicle fusion and phase separation

Vesicle-vesicle aggregation to mimic cell-cell aggregation has attracted much attention. Here, hyperbranched polymer vesicles (branched-polymersomes, BPs) with a cell-like size were selected as model membranes, and the vesicle aggregation process, triggered by click chemistry of the copper-catalysed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction, was systematically studied. For this purpose, azide and alkynyl groups were loaded on the membranes of BPs through the co-assembly method to obtain N(3)-BPs and Alk-BPs, respectively. Subsequently, macroscopic vesicle aggregates were obtained when these two kinds of functional BPs were mixed together with the ratio of azide to alkynyl groups of about 1:1. Both the vesicle fusion events and lateral phase separation on the vesicle membrane occurred during such a vesicle aggregation process, and the fusion rate and phase-separation degree could be controlled by adjusting the clickable group content. The vesicle aggregation process with N(3) -micelles as desmosome mimics to connect with Alk-BPs through click-chemistry reaction was also studied, and large-scale vesicle aggregates without vesicle fusion were obtained in this process. The present work has extended the controllable cytomimetic vesicle aggregation process with the use of covalent bonds, instead of noncovalent bonds, as the driving force.