A delivery system into the dermis layer of skin using small unilamellar liposomes and targeted collagen regeneration stimulated by electric field

Abstract

Collagen is one of the prominent scaffolding components of the extracellular matrix that can turn into collagen fibers through self-assembly mechanisms. Understanding that various factors can influence collagen assembly, we studied the effect of electric field exposure and visualized collagen fibrils' fibrillogenesis process under the confocal microscope. Collagen monomers started to aggregate within 10 seconds after applying an AC of 10 Hz-1V, and collagen fibrils with a 28- to 70-nm diameter appeared within 9 minutes. Further, we designed an experiment to form collagen fibers at a targeted region by encapsulating collagen molecules in nano-sized liposomes (Lip-Col) and have confirmed that the fibrils were successfully formed. We infer that the electric field could trigger the electrical interaction between hydronium ion and the hydroxyl group of hydroxyproline in the collagen peptide chains, resulting in the change of the surface charge of the collagen and pH solution. In vitro, Lip-Cols can interact with the cellular membrane of human dermal fibroblast and form collagen networks in extracellular matrix space. Our findings can potentially be utilized as a drug delivery system for anti-aging or wound healing agents.