Influence of particle shape on plasma protein adsorption and macrophage uptake

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the plasma protein adsorption behavior onto different LIPOMER nanoparticles, especially looking for the first time, if the particle shape affects the protein adsorption pattern. The potential in vivo fate is discussed and compared with previous in vivo animal studies. The two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE) was used for identification of adsorbed plasma proteins. Qualitative similar patterns were obtained from the protein adsorption analysis and four apolipoproteins with considerable quantitative differences were identified. Besides the quantitative differences in the adsorbed apolipoproteins, in vitro uptake in the human macrophage cell line U-937 of histocytic lymphoma organ revealed significantly lower uptake of the irregular glycerol monostearate LIPOMER nanoparticles. Therefore, protein adsorption does not seem to play a role in the splenotropic behavior in the sense, that adsorption of opsonins, especially spleen-specific opsonins are required for the uptake. The splenotropic uptake might be favored because all LIPOMER nanoparticles did not adsorb opsonins at all, mediating competitive uptake by liver macrophages. Differences in the in vivo uptake by the spleen were attributed to differences in particle shape with potential super position effect by the quantitative differences in the adsorbed proteins.