Abstract
Phytosterols (PS) and phytosterol esters have been widely used in the food and health product industries as cholesterol-lowering agents. In order to improve theirs dispersity and bioavailability in low lipid media, PS and phytosterol acetate ester (PAE) were embedded into liposomes in the study. The effects of different PAE or PS concentrations on liposome properties were determined and interactions between PAE or PS and phospholipids were also explored. PAE and PS can be well embedded in liposomes, and the encapsulation rate was more than 90%. Compared to SPC liposomes, no significant difference (P > 0.05) in particle size (60 nm) and zeta potential (-15 mV) were observed between liposomes with PAE or PS. Liposomes were spherical, with smooth surfaces and uniform size distributions. The results of X-ray powder diffractometry (XRD) revealed that PAE and PS were amorphously embedded in liposomes. The results from the Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) analysis indicated that PAE or PS changed the structure of the lipid membrane by interacting with phospholipids in the liposomes. Low doses of PAE had a stabilizing effect on the liposome membrane structure.
Highlights
PS can effectively reduce the total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein in serum by inhibiting cholesterol absorption in the intestinal tract (Cedó et al, 2019)
It was found that the incorporation of phytosterol esters did not significantly change (Gorrissen et al, 1980) or decreased the particle size of liposomes (Wang et al, 2017)
After being stored for 1 month at 4 °C, the particle size of phytosterol acetate ester (PAE) and PS liposome increased from about 60 nm to 70 nm, and which of without incorporation of PAE and PS liposome increased from about 60 nm to 90 nm. These results indicated that low concentrations of PAE and PS could improve the storage stability of liposomes
Summary
PS can effectively reduce the total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein in serum by inhibiting cholesterol absorption in the intestinal tract (Cedó et al, 2019). Phytosterol esters have been widely used in the food and health product industries as cholesterollowering agents (Lin et al, 2018; Scholz et al, 2016; Rui et al, 2017; Gachumi et al, 2021; Pega et al, 2017) since they are fatsoluble. Phytosterol esters as food additives require a high-fat environment. Consumers may have to eat more fat to benefit from the effect of phytosterol esters on lowering serum cholesterol. Dispersion or emulsification of phytosterol esters and PS may be an interesting solution to this issue, but there have been few reports on this approach (Luo et al, 2016; Wang et al, 2017; Panpipat et al, 2013)
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