Abstract
For mass production of liposomes, we designed a plastic micro-channel device on the basis of 5 μm of micro-nozzle array forming T-junction with 100 μm depth of micro-channel. A micro-channel unit for synthesizing liposomes consisted of two micro-nozzle arrays for mixing two solutions as well as delivery and recovery channels for supplying solutions and collecting liposome suspension. The number of micro-nozzles was approximately 2400 for a micro-channel unit, and seven units were applied independently on a micro-channel plate. The plastic micro-channel plate was injection-molded for mass production using a micro-channel stamper previously fabricated by UV lithography and nickel electroforming process. A plastic cover plate with seven pairs of inlet and outlet ports was machined by mechanical milling and drilling and was assembled with a micro-channel plate using a holder to form a liposome synthesizing device. Flow and mixing of solutions in the micro-channels were tested using colored water to check the micro-fluidic characteristics of the device. Finally, a L-α-phosphatidylcholine (SOY PC) liposome was synthesized using EtOH solution of SOY PC (95%) and saline (0.85% NaOH solution) to find that the liposomes were around 230 and 260 nm in diameter, depending on the flow rate of the lipid solution.
Highlights
Received: 26 January 2021Liposome is a spherical lipid bilayer (Figure 1) that can encapsulate liquid containing various functional substances such as drugs, proteins, and nutrients [1]
Size of the liposome ranges from several tens of nanometers to several micrometers depending on the lipid, buffer solution, and process conditions such as flow rate of solution
Due to the good protective and controlling ability of the functional substance contained within, liposome is more widely used for applications in drug delivery [2,3,4,5,6,7], health supplements [8,9], cosmetics [10,11], oral vaccine [12,13], and biosensors [14]
Summary
Liposome is a spherical lipid bilayer (Figure 1) that can encapsulate liquid containing various functional substances such as drugs, proteins, and nutrients [1]. Liposome synthesized by these bulk processes is generally larger than several hundreds of nanometers and shows a relatively broad size distribution. Liposome synthesis using such channels shows outstanding performance regarding uniformity and control of size, the low throughput makes it difficult for industrial use. To solve this issue, researchers conducted studies on liposome synthesis using micro-pore membrane as a micro-fluidic platform, showing good productivity due to the large number of micro-pores on the membrane and parallel synthesizing through each pore [22,23]. Liposome synthesis using size and distribution were measured Such channels shows outstanding performance regarding uniformity and control of size, the low throughput makes of it difficult for industrial use.for
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