Langmuir, Vol.19, No.6, 2021-2025, 2003
Control of physicochemical properties of liposomes using a supercritical reverse phase evaporation method
L-alpha-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and L-alpha-dioleoylphosphatidylcholine (DOPC) liposomes were prepared using the previously developed supercritical reverse phase evaporation (scRPE) method. The effects of phospholipid structure, preparation pressure, and amount of ethanol on their physicochemical properties were examined using measurements of trapping efficiency, cloud point, dynamic light scattering, and osmotic water transport. The trapping efficiencies of DOPC liposomes were higher than those of DPPC due to their bulky structure. The maximum trapping efficiency of DOPC liposomes prepared by the scRPE method was as high as 40%. The phase behavior of the phospholipid/ethanol/CO2 mixture before introducing water strongly influenced the physicochemical properties of the liposomes. The sizes of liposomes prepared at pressures below 200 bar seem to be larger than those of liposomes prepared at > 200 bar. The variability of size caused the difference in the trapping efficiencies of the liposomes prepared from both states. The minimum ethanol concentration to obtain water in a CO2 emulsion at 200 bar is 6.8 wt %, which corresponds well to the optimum ethanol concentration to obtain large unilamellar Vesicles with the highest trapping efficiency. On the other hand, multilamellar vesicles seem to be formed when the ethanol concentration added to the system is less than 6.8 wt % since the trapping efficiency and osmotic shrinkage velocity are low. These results show that the scRPE method makes it possible to control the physicochemical properties of liposomes such as particle size, size distribution, trapping efficiency, and lamellarity in a single step.