Phosphatidylcholine vesicles: structure and formation

Abstract

Phosphatidylcholines and certain other phospholipids, as pure substances and as mixtures, can be dispersed in aqueous media to form unilamellar vesicles. The process by which these vesicles form in most instances depends on the bending and subsequent closure of an initially flat disc micelle. Under some circumstances this process can be reversed to generate disc micelles from vesicles. These processes may occur in the formation and nonequilibrium transformations of bile.