The Size Reduction of Liposomes with a High Pressure Homogenizer (Microfluidizer™). Characterization of Prepared Dispersions and Comparison with Conventional Methods.

A high pressure homogenizer (the Microfluidzer™) was tested for its ability to produce liposomal dispersions with a narrow size distribution. For dispersions with 40μmol phospholipid/ml, sonication and high pressure homogenization gave similar average particle diameters. With the Microfluidizer™ it was possible to produce reproducible dispersions with a mean particle size between 0.05 and 0.25μm and a narrow size distribution containing up to 200μmol phospholipid/ml. However, after processing 50 ml batches significant lipid loss was observed and small amounts of metal particles were found in the dispersions.