[Pharmaceutical applications of the zeta potential--use in characterization of colloidal drug carriers].

Colloidal drug carriers which mainly involve submicron emulsions, nanoparticles, microparticles, liposomes and lipid complexes have received increasing interest in recent years mainly as vehicles of lipophilic drugs and as improved delivery systems for drug targeting. Size and encapsulation efficiency are, in general, the two parameters used to characterize these pharmaceutical forms. Nevertheless, the surface characteristics of these dispersion have been known to influence their physical, chemical and biological properties. Then, the aim of these study is to evaluate, with some examples and illustrations, the interest of zeta potential determinations to improve the characterization of these colloidal drug carriers.