Toward an understanding of liposome structure through the use of computer graphic image correlation

A computer‐aided graphics approach to correlating transmission electron microscope images of freeze‐fractured and thin‐sectioned samples is outlined. Any three‐dimensional model of the imaged structure can be mathematically sectioned to provide a two‐dimensional representation of the model in the “fracture” plane. The method is used to demonstrate that the structure of lamellar liquid crystalline liposomes is based on a family of Dupin cyclides; closed, parallel surfaces with a conjugate ellipse and hyperbola as curvature defects.