Abstract | As the first commercially available surface plasmon resonance device, the BIAcore was primarily conceived with the intention of analyzing macromolecular interactions involving reasonably well defined, purified and soluble interactants. There are a variety of qualitatively informative experimental designs that can be successfully undertaken using lipid vesicles and BIAcore. The vesicle immobilization method, or vesicle-down configuration, involves the introduction of a surface antigen by way of inserting hapten-linked phospholipids into lipid bilayers. The implementation on the BIAcore of methods allowing the reproduction of a more “natural” cellular environment in vitro with which to study membrane-located binding events can be very important considering the central role that membranes play in a variety of biological processes. Homologous/heterologous competition using brush border membrane vesicle preincubated with toxin before injection over an immobilized toxin surface allows for the determination of specific versus non-specific binding events. |
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