The Pulsatory Lipid Vesicle Dynamics Under Osmotic Stress: Pulsatory liposome - an intelligent two stroke microbioengine for controlled drug delivery

The book deals with pulsatory lipid vesicle. One considers a lipid vesicle, filled with aqueous solution of an osmotic solution, that is introduced into hypotonic aqueous medium. Water inflow stretches the vesicle until a critical state, when only a transbilayer pore appears at a time. The osmotic stress and the pore appearance are the two successive processes determining the cyclic evolution of the vesicle. Since it performs a cyclic activity releasing an inner liquid during each cycle, this liposome was defined as a pulsatory liposome. It may also be programmed to work for a certain number of cycles. That is why the pulsatory liposome can be defined as an intelligent liposome. Such liposomes can be used for special substances dosage into the organism microsites where is very difficult to reach. More than this, the pulsatory liposome behaves as a two stroke engine using the osmotic solute as fuel. Initially, it is energized by establishing a transmembrane gradient of osmotic solute. The inner osmotic solute plays the role of the fuel, which is consumed due to its own delivery into the external medium. The osmotic solute may be a special substance (drugs, genetic material, etc).