Thermal effect on a viscously deformed liposome in a laser trap

The viscous drag force of phospholipids vesicle hold under an optical trap was shown to be reduced when temperature increases, and the process was reversible. More specifically, vesicle becomes less rigid and expands in its projected area due to thermotropic phase transition, thus results in a more stream-wise shape of the deformed vesicle. This paper demonstrates that a highly interrelated physiochemical factors were dictating the magnitude of viscous drag of highly deformable vesicle in an optical trap and may provide new insights into the cellular deformation behavior induced by physiological flow.