Development of processing techniques for liposomes using membranes

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In this study, we developed a facile and novel method for preparing liposomes simply by permeating lipid-alcohol solutions through Shirasu porous glass (SPG) membranes.This is based on the phenomenon in which an interface between a lipid-alcohol solution and water is formed and the two solutions mix with each other at the surface of an SPG membrane when the lipid-alcohol solution is slowly permeated through the membrane; this reduces the concentration of the alcohol solution and induces spontaneous formation of liposomes. We successfully prepared 100-nm monodispersed liposomes by this method using lipid-isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and lipid-ethanol (EtOH) solutions. Additionally, an increase in the liposome size was clearly observed in freezing-thawing treatment when IPA was used as the alcohol, whereas the liposome size was unchanged by freezing-thawing treatment when EtOH was used. It is interesting that the alcohol affected the liposome properties, in particular the membrane fluidity, even although no effect of the alcohol on the liposome structure, such as size, monodispersity, was observed.