Abstract
Over the last few decades, liposomes have emerged as promising drug delivery systems and effective membrane models for studying biophysical and biological processes. For all applications, knowing their concentration after preparation is crucial. Thus, the development of methods for easily controlling vesicles concentration would be of great utility. A new assay is presented here, based on a suitable analysis of light scattering intensity from liposome dispersions. The method, tested for extrusion preparations, is precise, easy, fast, non-destructive and uses a tiny amount of sample. Furthermore, the scattering intensity can be measured indifferently at different angles, or even by using the elastic band obtained from a standard spectrofluorimeter. To validate the method, the measured concentrations of vesicles of different matrix compositions and sizes, measured by light scattering with different angles and instruments, were compared to the data obtained by the standard Stewart assay. Consistent results were obtained. The light scattering assay is based on the assessment of the mass fraction lost in the preparation, and can be applied for methods such as extrusion, homogenization, French press and other microfluidic procedures.
Highlights
Liposomes are lipid systems that phospholipids form in aqueous solutions
The preparation of unilamellar liposomes requires previously-prepared multi lamellar vesicles (MLVs), which can be subjected to a variety of different procedures in order to opportunely modulate their dimension and lamellarity [28]
Multi lamellar vesicles (MLVs) were prepared by Thin Layer Evaporation (TLE) followed by freezing and thawing (FAT) cycles
Summary
Liposomes are lipid systems that phospholipids form in aqueous solutions Due to their easy preparation, composition and versatility, they have received considerable attention as great potential pharmaceutical carriers and as effective membrane models over the past 30 years [1]. Unilamellar liposomes, called vesicles, constitute a more reliable model of the typical lipid structure of a membrane, isolating a relatively large hydrophilic space from the bulk through a single thin hydrophobic lipid bilayer. They can be prepared in a variety of sizes, ranging from tens of nanometres to tens of micrometres, emulating different kinds of cell compartments or organelles. Lipid vesicles are the most popular model membrane systems for studying biological issues [14,15,16,17]
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