Inward and outward membrane tubes pulled from giant vesicles

Membrane nanotubes are extruded from giant unilamellar lipid vesicles using a controlled hydrodynamic flow and membrane-attached beads manipulated via optical tweezers. Within a single experiment, the technique can be used to assess various important mechanical and rheological characteristics of the membrane such as the bending rigidity, tension and intermonolayer slip. The application of small flow velocities leads to the extrusion of tubes with sufficiently large diameters conveniently measurable under an optical microscope. For the first time, we show that by suitably controlling the medium flow, inward tubes inside the vesicles can be formed. This approach offers great potential for studying tubulation mechanisms in membrane systems, exhibiting positive as well as negative spontaneous curvatures and should offer a more realistic model for biomembranes because the vesicle membrane tension can adapt freely.