Influence of the Ceramide(III) and Cholesterol on the Structure of a Non-hydrous Phospholipid-based Lamellar Liquid Crystal : Structural and Thermal Transition Behaviors

Abstract

The effects of the creamide III (CER3) and cholesterol (CHOL) on the structure of a non-hydrous distearoyl phosphatidylcholine (DSPC)-based lamellar liquid crystal (LC) hydrated by only propylene glycol (PG) without water were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffractions (XRDs), and polarized microscope (PM). As soon as CER3 was incorporated into the lamellar phase, the characteristic LPP was appeared as well as the characteristic SPP, and the formation of separated CER3 crystalline phase was observed depending upon the increase of CER3 content by XRDs. Also, by DSC, it was shown that the increase of CER3 made the monotectic thermal transition be changed to the eutectic thermal transition which indicates the formation of separated CER3 crystalline phases and the main transition temperatures (Tc1) to be gradually decreased and the enthalpy change (ΔH) to be linearly increased. Incorporating CHOL, the formation of LPP and SPP showed almost similar behaviors to CER3, but incorporating small amounts of CHOL showed the characteristic peaks of CHOL which meant the existence of crystalline CHOL phase due to the immiscibility of CHOL with DSPC swollen by PG differently from CER3, and increasing CHOL made the intensity of the 1st order diffraction for LPP weakened as well as the intensities of the characteristic diffractions for DSPC. Also, in the results of DSC, it showed more complex thermal behaviors having several Tc than CER3 due to its bulky chemical structure. In the present study, the inducement of CER3 and CHOL as other lipids present in human stratum corneum (SC) into a non-hydrous lamellar phase is discussed in terms of the influence on their structural and thermal transition.