Bilayer vesicles vesicular systems

Dermal and transdermal delivery requires efficient penetration of compounds through the skin barrier, the bilayer domains of intercellular lipid matrices, and keratin bundles in the stratum corneum (SC). Lipid vesicular systems are a recognized mode of enhanced delivery of drugs into and through the skin. However, it is noteworthy that not every lipid vesicular system has the adequate characteristics to enhance skin membrane permeation. Specially designed lipid vesicles in contrast to classic liposomal compositions could achieve this goal. This chapter describes the structure, main physicochemical characteristics, and mechanism of action of prominent vesicular carriers in this field and reviews reported data on their enhanced delivery performance. 

Having successfully accelerated the reversible isomerization between the aldimine and ketimine Schiff bases, Murakami et al. then studied how to obtain turnovers in the full transamination reaction between one amino acid and one keto acid [25]. They found that the bilayer vesicle system constituted with 33, 36, and Cu(n) ions showed some turnovers for the transamination between L-phenylalanine and pyruvic add. However, such turnover behavior was not observed in a vesicular system composed of 32, 36, and Cu(n) ions, and an aqueous system involving N-methylpyridoxal and Cu(n) ions without amphiphiles. Therefore, both the hydrophobic effect and the imidazole catalysis effect were proposed as important for the turnover behavior. 

A more elegant way to combine the advantages of PhCs on the basis of dispersed semiconductors with those of membrane-structured systems seems to be the inclusion of semiconductor nanoparticles into microscopic vesicular systems with bilayer lipid membranes (vesicles are the microscopic bubbles, see Section II and Fig. 4). It is anticipated that semiconductor nanoparticles in such systems can serve the role of very efficient and stable integral photoreaction centers mimicking completely the spatially well-organized... 

In this brief review we will describe some important encapsulation processes by vesicular aggregates. Encapsulation will be broadly interpreted. Apart from solubilization in the aqueous pool inside the vesicle, the term will also encompass binding of solubilizates to all binding sites available in the vesicular system. We will not discuss bilayer vesicles formed from amphiphiles further functionalized by receptor molecules, such as amphiphilic cyclodextrins. ... 

In model systems for bilayers, one typically considers systems which are composed of one type of phospholipid. In these systems, vesicles very often are observed. The size of vesicles may depend on their preparation history, and can vary from approximately 50 nm (small unilamellar vesicles or SUVs) up to many pm (large unilamellar or LUV). Also one may find multilamellar vesicular structures with more, and often many more than, one bilayer separating the inside from the outside. Indeed, usually it is necessary to follow special recipes to obtain unilamellar vesicles. A systematic way to produce such vesicles is to expose the systems to a series of freeze-thaw cycles [20]. In this process, the vesicles are repeatedly broken into fragments when they are deeply frozen to liquid nitrogen temperatures, but reseal to closed vesicles upon thawing. This procedure helps the equilibration process and, because well-defined vesicles form, it is now believed that such vesicles represent (close to) equilibrium structures. If this is the case then we need to understand the physics of thermodynamically stable vesicles. 

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