Shrinkage of pegylated and non-pegylated liposomes in serum

An essential requisite for the design of nanodelivery systems is the ability to characterize the size, homogeneity and zeta potential of nanoparticles. Such properties can be tailored in order to create the most efficient drug delivery platforms. An important question is whether these characteristics change upon systemic injection. Here, we have studied the behavior of phosphatidylcholine/cholesterol liposomes exposed to serum proteins. The results reveal a serum-induced reduction in the size and homogeneity of both pegylated and non-pegylated liposomes, implicating the possible role of osmotic forces. In addition, changes to zeta-potential were observed upon exposing liposomes to serum. The liposomes with polyethylene glycol expressed different characteristics than their non-polymeric counterparts, suggesting the potential formation of a denser protein corona around the non-pegylated liposomes.