Advances on Characterization of Lyotropic Liquid Crystals as Drug Delivery System / 中国药学杂志

ABSTRACT

Lyotropic liquid crystal(LLC) is generally a kind of micelle association formed by self-assembly of amphiphilic lipid polymers in polar solvents. It have been applied in the study of drug delivery of administration of oral, skin injection, ocular, and cavity channel routes(including buccal cavity, nasal cavity, vagina), et al. Medical liquid crystal mainly includes lamellar phase, inverse hexagonal phase and inverse cubic phase. Inner assembling order in different structures of liquid crystals will affect the drug localization, viscosity, molecular interactions, and further drug release in vitro and in vivo, pharmacokinetics and so on. Thus, it is very important to characterize their microstructures. In this article, the characterization methods of LLC microstructures are comprehensively described based on the research of LLC as drug delivery carrier and related literatures, which can provide reference for further study of LLC drug delivery system.