Berlin 2005 – scientific programme

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CPP: Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 5: SYMPOSIUM: Dynamics of multi-component fluids POSTER

CPP 5.7: Poster

Friday, March 4, 2005, 17:15–19:00, Poster TU D

Transport of Liposomes through Pores — •Gunnar T. Linke, Thomas Gruhn, and Reinhard Lipowsky — Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Am Mühlenberg 1, D-14776 Golm, Germany

In the last decade, liposomes have become an important drug delivery system. One important application is the transport of anti-tumor drugs into the affected tissue. As found in experiments, the endothelium of blood vessels in cancer tissues is irregularly formed and contains large gaps, which allow an increased uptake of liposomes. Another application of liposomes is the osmotically induced transcutaneous transport of encapsulated substances through narrow pores in the skin.

Free energy barriers for these transport processes are estimated by means of Monte Carlo simulations. In case of narrow pores, the free energy barrier may vanish for liposomes with a second component which has a positive spontaneous curvature. Further, it is shown that a homogeneous spontaneous curvature drastically reduces the free energy barrier for the transport of liposomes through pores with radii slightly smaller than the liposome radius.