title: Extrusion of electroformed giant unilamellar vesicles through track-etched membranes.
abstract: Unilamellar vesicle populations having a narrow size distribution and mean radius below 100 nm are preferred for drug delivery applications. In the present work, 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) was used to prepare giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) by electroformation and multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) by thin film hydration. Our experiments show that in contrast to MLVs, a single-pass extrusion of GUVs through track-etched polycarbonate membranes at moderate pressure differences is sufficient to produce small liposomes having low polydispersity index. Moreover, we observe that the drug encapsulating potential of extruded liposomes obtained from GUVs is significantly higher compared to liposomes prepared by extrusion of MLVs. Furthermore, our experiments carried out for varying membrane pore diameters and extrusion pressures suggest that the size of extruded liposomes is a function of the velocity of GUV suspensions in the membrane pore.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India.
authors.forename: Yogita P
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.forename: Mrunmayi D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Kumbhalkar
authors.forename: Sameer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jadhav
mesh_terms: D015060:1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D010316:Particle Size; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage; D016062:Porosity; D011312:Pressure; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations; D053835:Unilamellar Liposomes; D015060:1,2-Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine