News tagged with liposomes

Liposomes are artificially prepared vesicles made of lipid bilayer. Liposomes can be filled with drugs, and used to deliver drugs for cancer and other diseases. Liposomes are composite structures made of phospholipids and may contain small amounts of other molecules. Though liposomes can vary in size from low micrometer range to tens of micrometers, unilamellar liposomes, as pictured here, are typically in the lower size range with various targeting ligands attached to their surface allowing for their surface-attachment and accumulation in pathological areas for treatment of disease. Liposomes can be prepared by disrupting biological membranes, for example by sonication.

Liposomes can be composed of naturally derived phospholipids with mixed lipid chains (like egg phosphatidylethanolamine) or other surfactants. Liposomes should not be confused with micelles and reverse micelles composed of monolayers.

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