Vesicles

Introduction:
Small packets or bubbles that are used for the transport of materials within a cell and across the cell membrane.

Classification of Vesicles:
We can classify the vesicles on the following factors:
1. Structure
2. Liposomal preparation
1. Classification on the basis of structure
There are following types of vesicles on the basis of structure:

a. Small unilamellar vesicles; abbreviated as SUV. Size ranges from 20-100 nanometer.
b. Medium sized unilamellar vesicles; abbreviated as MUV.
c. Large unilamellar vesicles; abbreviated as LUV. Size is greater than 100 nanometer.
d. Oligolamellar vesicles; abbreviated as OLV. Size ranges from 0.1-1 micrometer.
e. Multilamellar large vesicles; abbreviated as MLV. Size is greater than 0.5 micrometer.
f. Giant unilamellar vesicles; abbreviated as GUV. Size is greater than 1 micrometer.
g. Unilamellar vesicles; abbreviated as UV. All size range.
h. Multivesicular vesicles; abbreviated as MVV. Size is large, usually greater than 1 micrometer.

2. Classification on the basis of liposomal preparations

There are following types of vesicles on the basis of liposomal preparations:
 a. Vesicles made by reverse phase evaporation method:
      i. Oligolamellar vesicles (also known as single vesicles); abbreviated as REV
      ii. Multilamellar vesicles ; abbreviated as MLV-REV
 b. Stable plurilamellar vesicles; SPLV
 c. Vesicles prepared by extrusion methods; abbreviated as VET
 d. Frozen and thawed multilamellar vesicles; abbreviated as FATMLV

 e. Dehydration-rehydration vesicles; abbreviated as DRV