FIG 5.

Static and dynamics light scattering (SLS/DLS) of PG(32:0), Rom, and mixed compounds. (A) DLS results for PG(32:0) alone. PG(32:0) at 1 mM was diluted from a 5 mM sample solution. The mean size determined at 90° was 90.8 nm. Further study demonstrated that the size of PG(32:0) vesicles did not change much over time when the concentration was below a certain threshold. (B) DLS results for Rom (0.1 mM) solution. The mean size of nanoclusters was about 120 nm for the freshly prepared sample. The 2nd measurement after 60 min showed an increase in size to 190 nm. For long-time incubation (overnight), visible Rom aggregates appeared. This result suggests that Rom forms nanoclusters after preparation that slowly agglomerate into large aggregates. (C) DLS results for Rom and PG mixture. Rom (0.1 mM) and PG(32:0) (1.0 mM) were mixed in a volume ratio of 1:1. The 1st measurement yielded a mean size of 100 nm, similar to the original size shown in Fig. 1. The 2nd measurement, after overnight incubation, yielded a mean size of about 200 nm, nearly double the size. This result demonstrates that Rom indeed interacts with PG vesicles, leading to an increase of vesicle size.