Fig. 3: Mechanism involved in the polysaccharide hydrolysis-induced reconfiguration of LC coacervate microdroplets into isotropic coacervate vesicles.

a Molecular weight of Cm-Am fragments in the course of amylase-induced hydrolysis inside Cm-Am/DDAB LC microdroplets. b Time series of POM images showing the structural transition from LC coacervates to isotropic coacervate vesicles initiated by amylase (1.5 mg/mL). c Scheme representing the hydrolysis degree of Cm-Am determined structural ordering of the resultant assemblies, namely, low-degree-hydrolysis Cm-Am formed LC coacervates with DDAB, while high-degree-hydrolysis Cm-Am led to isotropic coacervate vesicles with DDAB. d GPC elution profiles showing H-Cm-Am 1 were the 2-min dominant species of Cm-Am hydrolysis, whilst H-Cm-Am 2 became the 12-h predominant products. The reverse peaks were attributed to solvent effects. Fluorescence microscopy and POM images displaying H-Cm-Am 1 and DDAB formed ordered LC coacervate microdroplets (e), whereas H-Cm-Am 2 and DDAB generated isotropic coacervate vesicles (f). Time-lapse fluorescence microscopy images (g) and corresponding kinetics (h) for FRAP of RITC-dextran (10 k Da)-doped Cm-Am/DDAB LC microdroplet and H-Cm-Am/DDAB coacervate vesicle, respectively, exhibiting around 8-fold increase of molecular mobility in the coacervate vesicle by compared to that in the initial LC droplets. The data represented mean ± s.d. (n = 3 independent experiments). Scale bars, b, e–g 5 μm. The experiments for a, b, d–h were repeated three times independently with similar results. Source data are provided as a Source data file.