Production of plasma membrane vesicles with chloride salts and their utility as a cell membrane mimetic for biophysical characterization of membrane protein interactions.

Plasma membrane derived vesicles are used as a model system for the biochemical and biophysical investigations of membrane proteins and membrane organization. The most widely used vesiculation procedure relies on formaldehyde and dithiothreitol (DTT), but these active chemicals may introduce artifacts in the experimental results. Here we describe a procedure to vesiculate Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells, widely used for the expression of recombinant proteins, using a hypertonic vesiculation buffer containing chloride salts and no formaldehyde or DTT. We characterize the size distribution of the produced vesicles. We also show that these vesicles can be used for the biophysical characterization of interactions between membrane proteins.