Liposome disposition in vivo. VI: Delivery to the lung.

The effect of negatively charged liposome components and vesicle size on the time course and dose dependency of liposome disposition in mice was studied with a view to optimizing liposome delivery to the lung. The disposition of large multilamellar liposomes was followed using 125I-labeled p-hydroxybenzamidine phosphatidyl ethanolamine. Of the three negatively charged liposome compositions studied (phosphatidyl choline-X-cholesterol-alpha-tocopherol, molar ratio: 4:1:5:0.1; X = phosphatidyl serine, dipalmitoyl phosphatidic acid, or phosphatidyl glycerol), phosphatidyl serine liposomes resulted in the greatest accumulation in lungs. Lung levels decreased up to 95 h postdose, at which time 6% of the liposome dose present at 2 h still remained. The disposition of phosphatidyl serine-containing liposomes was independent of dose for the range 0.04-21 mumol/animal. When liposomes containing phosphatidyl choline were prepared using a variety of extrusion and dialysis conditions, a strong link between liposome size and lung accumulation was revealed. A maximum lung accumulation of 30.9% of the administered dose was achieved with no detectable gross pathological lung lesions up to 24 h postdose.