Lyotropic Behaviors of a Phospholipid-based Lamella Liquid Crystalline Phase Hydrated by Propylene Glycol as a Polar Solvent: Correlation of DSPC vs PG Concentration

Abstract

The lyotropic behaviors to form the structure of distearoylphosphatidylcholine (DSPC)-based liquid crystal (LC) hydrated by only propylene glycol (PG) without water were examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffractions (XRD), polarized microscope (PM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). By increasing the amount of PG instead of water, it showed the phase transition to be gradually changed from anisotropic structures to other structures more close to isotropic ones and their appearance to be changed from solid-like states to liquid-like ones with more fluidity. Below 50% w/w PG, the mixtures of DSPC and PG resulted in no direct observation of LC structure through PM because they were very close to solid-states. From 55% w/w to 90% w/w of PG, the dense lamella crystalline structures were observed through PM, and their thickness and area decreased as the content of PG increased. Measured by DSC with heating process, the main phase transition from α-lamella phase to isotropic phase appeared from 52.89 °C to 47.41 °C to show linearly decreasing behaviors because PG affects the hydrophobic region of DSPC-based lamella phase. The repeating distance of the lamella phase and the interlayer distance between bilayers were calculated with XRDs and the average number of bilayers related to the thickness in LC structure was approximately estimated by combining with TEM results. The WAXS and DSC measurements showed that all of PG molecules contributed to swelling both the lipid layer in the edge region of lamella phase close to phosphate groups and the interlayer between bilayers below 90% w/w of PG. The phase and thermal behaviors were found to depend on the amount of PG used by means of dissolving DSPC as a phospholipid and rearranging its structure. Instead of water, the inducement of PG as a polar solvent in solid-lamella phase is discussed in terms of the swelling effect of PG for DSPC-based lamella membrane.