Effect of Phase Transition Temperature of Phospholipid on the Stability of Retinol Incorporated into Liposomes

We investigated the effect of the phase transition temperature (T$_{c}$) of phospholipid in liposomes on the stability of incorporated retinol. Two kinds of phospholipid which have different T$_{c}$, L- $\alpha$ -dimyristoyl phosphatidyl choline (DMPC, T$_{c}$=22$^{\circ}$C) and D,L- $\alpha$ -dipalmitoyl phosphatidyl choline (DPPC, T$_{c}$=42$^{\circ}$), were used to prepare liposomes. Liposome with retinol was prepared as multilamella vesicles (MLVs) by the dehydration/rehydration method. The incorporation efficiency of retinol into liposomes prepared from DMPC and DPPC were 99.89$\pm$0.08% and 99.97$\pm$0.03, respectively. The average size of liposomes from DPPC were greater than that of DMPC. Two kinds of liposomes in phosphate buffer (10 mM, pH 7.0) were stored at 15, 30, and 5$0^{\circ}C$, and stability of incorporated retinol was analyzed. The stability of retinol in DMPC liposome was decreased, whereas the stability in DPPC liposome was increased as temperature increased, although the overall protection effect of liposome on the incorporated retinol was greater in DMPC liposomes than in DPPC liposomes.posomes.