Abstract
As a main component of the stratum corneum, ceramides can construct protective lamellae to provide an epidermal barrier against dehydration or external microorganisms. However, as ceramide molecules can easily form the isolated crystalline phase through self-assembly due to the amphipathic nature of bioactive lipids, the effective incorporation of ceramides into liquid media is the remaining issue for controlled release. Here, we report an unprecedented effective strategy to fabricate a completely amorphous and highly sustainable hierarchical ceramide polymer microcapsule for promising epidermal barrier by using the interpenetrating and cooperative self-construction of conical amphiphiles with a different critical packing parameter. The self-constructed amorphous architecture of ceramides in polymer microcapsule is achieved by the facile doping of conical amphiphiles and subsequent in situ polymerization of shell polymer in the core-shell geometry. It is experimentally revealed that an irregular cooperative packing structure formed by adaptive hydrophobic–hydrophilic interactions of cylindrical ceramides and conical amphiphiles in the confined microcapsule geometry enables a completely amorphous morphology of ceramides to be realized during the spontaneous encapsulation process. Furthermore, this elegant approach affords a highly dispersible and uniform hierarchical amorphous ceramide microcapsule with a greatly enhanced long-term stability compared to conventional crystalline ceramides.
Highlights
Human and animal skin plays an important role in the prevention of dehydration and temperature control, as well as in protection against physical, chemical, and biological attacks
The self-organized structure of amphiphilic molecules is mainly governed by critical packing parameter (CPP) derived from the head group area at the hydrophobic–hydrophilic interface, the length of the hydrophobic alkyl chain, and the volume (v) of molecule (Figure 2) [19]
Was greatly reduced by Methyl methacrylate (MMA) polymerization. These results confirm that hierarchical ceramide microcapsule including only ceramide, a noticeable weight loss was exhibited at the reduced microcapsules containing the interpenetrated ceramide and dilauramidoglutamide lysine (DLGL) as core materials were successfully temperature of 290 °C compared to that of pure ceramide, suggesting that the confined microcapsule prepared using facile doping of DLGL amphiphile and subsequent in situ polymerization of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) in geometry can suppress a high degree of crystallization of inner ceramide molecules
Summary
Human and animal skin plays an important role in the prevention of dehydration and temperature control, as well as in protection against physical, chemical, and biological attacks. Skin lipid mixtures have amphipathic properties due to their molecular structures, and these amphiphilic lipid molecules can form a dense brick-like structure, which is beneficial for maintaining moisture in the body and serving as an external barrier through intermolecular interactions [4,5] This robust lamellar architecture acts as a barrier to the skin, protecting it from the environment, and preventing dehydration [6]. The main purpose of PMMA microcapsules is to stably protect the inner core materials from the outside environment and to control the physical properties and release of the inner material [16] Even though this microencapsulation approach could serve as a solution to suppress the severe agglomeration of core materials in the liquid media, far, the encapsulation of ceramides using polymeric microcapsules has not yet been reported in the literature.
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