Saturday 31 August 2013

Learn More About The Liposomes

By Kate McMahon


Liposomes are vesicles. They are man made. They are made up of a double layer of lipids. They serve very many functions. Some of them include administering food nutrients and also therapeutic drugs.

They have various constituents. The components are chiefly chemicals or biological molecules that are made out of biological substances. They involve phospholipids. Those phospholipids are filled with phosphatidylcholine. They might also contain surfactant compounds for instance phosphatidylethanolamine which is usually obtained from eggs.

Their surfaces are manufactured in such a means that they are capable of attaching to the tissues. These tissues may be healthy or even unhealthy. The substances which exist on their coverings that help them in attaching to the tissues are named ligands.

They are divided into the different categories. The categories depend on the complexity of these materials. They include small unilamellar vesicles, multilamellar vesicles and the cochleate vesicles. Each category serves a particular purpose and has a different structure.

Those vesicles were discovered in 1961 by a scientist called Alec Bangham; a known British hematologist. That discovery was achieved at Cambridge within the institute known as Babraham College. This title liposome has its origin in Greek. It simply designates a body which filled with fats.

The skins of the vesicles are insoluble within water. This shows that they do not allow substances which can dissolve within water to go through them. However, substances which do not normally dissolve in water easily pass through the membranes. Such substances involve fats or lipids.

The vesicles contain aqueous solutions at their center. An aqueous solution contains salts that are dissolved in water. Such salts are said to be hydrophilic. Therefore, the vesicles are able to carry molecules that are able to dissolve in water and also those that cannot dissolve in water.

They simply release those molecules that they contain. They achieve that owing to ligands found in their surfaces. Those ligands assist them to adhere unto the cells that they usually target. After adhering to them, they again usually unfold and deliver those components.

The vesicles aid in different sectors of medicine. They aid in delivering a broad range of substances, nutrients and molecules to body cells. They include nutritional supplements plus also drugs which are used to cure different illnesses. They are again used to release DNA products.

They also help in the management of different tumors. They can be used to release drugs to the cancerous cells in the body. This thus broadens their application in medicine.

Manufacturing them relies upon several factors. Those factors comprise the largeness of particles which are meant to release, the solubility of those materials, the quantity plus again the media that should be utilized among others. That hence means that producing them is a complicated and hard process.

Researches are ongoing to develop immune resistant particles. This means vesicles which may not be sensed and destroyed by cell of immune system. It would raise their lifespan in human body hence improving their effectiveness. Liposomes are therefore vital biological man made materials. They help greatly within many fields in medicine and also health in general.




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