Thermolabile Liposomes with a High Fusion Efficacy at 42°C can be Made of Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine/Fatty Alcohol Mixtures in the Molar Ratio of 1/2.

Liposomes made of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylglycerol (DPPG), and different long-chain fatty alcohols were investigated with respect to their colloidal stability, chain-melting phase transition temperature, and temperature dependent inter-vesicle fusion. In particular, the practical usefulness of the stoichiometric 1/2 (mol/mol) mixtures of the phospholipids and fatty alcohols, mainly elaidoyl alcohol (EL-OH) were studied. The mole fraction of DPPG in the bilayers of such vesicles affects crucially the colloidal stability of the resulting lipid suspensions; at least 15 mol-% of DPPG (relative to DPPC) must be incorporated into the bilayers in order to make the liposome suspension colloidally sufficiently stable at room temperature. The corresponding DPPC/DPPG/EL-OH (0.85/0.15/2) mixed lipid vesicles undergo a lamellar-gel to inverted hexagonal (H) phase transition at 52.7°C, however, and then fuse and aggregate massively. The related phase transition temperature of the DPPC/DPPG/palmitelaidoyl alcohol (0.85/0.15/2) mixture is 48.4°C. This indicates that the chain-melting phase transition temperature of the investigated lipid mixtures is rather sensitive to the alcohol chain-length. This transition temperature is independent, however, of the bulk proton concentration in the pH region between 4.9 and 7.2. Stoichiometric 1/2 mixtures of phospholipids and EL-OH have a high propensity for the inter-vesicle fusion at 42°C and neutral pH. The reason for such fusion 10°C below the lamellar-to-nonlamellar phase transition temperature are the defects that are generated during the chain-melting of the (partly segregated) phospholipid component at 42°C; the proximity of the lamellar to non-lamellar phase transition temperature of the phospholipid/fatty alcohol (1/2) complex at 52°C also plays an important role.