Microelectrophoresis was combined with laser trap technology to monitor the surface potential of single colloidal particles as a function of time. This method was employed to measure the enzyme kinetics of phospholipase C (PLC) with a time resolution of approximately 1 sec. Silica-beads with 500 nm radius were coated with a phospholipid bilayer composed of electrically neutral phosphatidylcholine and the negatively charged substrate phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (2%). Changes in the zetapotential are caused by a few membrane bound enzymes. The coated beads were exposed to different PLC- concentrations in the nanomolar regime. Besides, quantitative fluorescence microscopy was applied to investigate the aggregation behaviour of DNA/polylysine complexes under different conditions. The number of plasmids per complex was determined with image processing by analyzing the intensity distribution of fluorescently labelled complexes. The distribution function of the colloidal aggregation process showed dynamic scaling. In the presence of lung surfactant (alveofact) a significant effect on the aggregation behaviour of DNA/polylysine complexes was observed. Furthermore, fluorescence resonance energy transfer was used to study the stability and packing density of DNA/polylysine complexes under the influence of monovalent ions and anionic polymers.
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Microelectrophoresis was combined with laser trap technology to monitor the surface potential of single colloidal particles as a function of time. This method was employed to measure the enzyme kinetics of phospholipase C (PLC) with a time resolution of approximately 1 sec. Silica-beads with 500 nm radius were coated with a phospholipid bilayer composed of electrically neutral phosphatidylcholine and the negatively charged substrate phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (2%). Changes in the zeta...
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