Tunable morphology of lipid/chitosan particle assemblies

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Drug Delivery Systems

Background:

• Lipid/chitosan (CS) particle assemblies are emerging as advanced carriers for drug delivery.
• Developing efficient and simple methods for creating these assemblies is crucial for therapeutic applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report for the first time the formation of lipid/chitosan assemblies via spontaneous adsorption.
• To investigate the impact of initial lipid membrane morphology on the characteristics of the resulting assemblies.

Main Methods:

• Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) was used to analyze the size distribution of the assemblies.
• Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was employed to visualize the morphology of the assemblies and the interaction between lipid membranes and CS particles.

Main Results:

• Non-aggregated lipid/chitosan assemblies with satisfactory size distributions were successfully formed.
• Vesicular lipid membranes predominantly wrapped chitosan particles.
• Lipid discs, in contrast, were observed to stack onto the chitosan particle surfaces rather than reorganizing.

Conclusions:

• Spontaneous adsorption offers a simple and effective method for creating lipid/chitosan assemblies for drug delivery.
• The initial morphology of lipid membranes significantly dictates the structure and characteristics of the final particle assemblies.