Sterically stabilized liposomes. Reduction in electrophoretic mobility but not electrostatic surface potential.

The electrophoretic mobility of liposomes containing a negatively charged derivative of phosphatidylethanolamine with a large headgroup composed of the hydrophilic polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG-PE) was determined by Doppler electrophoretic light scattering. The results show that this method is improved by the use of measurements at multiple angles to eliminate artifacts and that very small mobilities can be measured. The electrophoretic mobility of liposomes with 5 to 10 mol% PEG-PE is approximately -0.5 mu ms-1/Vcm-1 regardless of PEG-PE content compared with approximately -2 mu ms-1/Vcm-1 for similar liposomes but containing 7.5% phosphatidylglycerol (PG) instead of PEG-PE. Measurements of surface potential by distribution of an anionic fluorescent probe show that the PEG-PE imparts a negative charge identical to that by PG, consistent with the expectation of similar locations of the ionized phosphate responsible for the charge. The reduced mobility imparted by the surface bound PEG is attributed to a mechanism similar to that described for colloidal steric stabilization: hydrodynamic drag moves the hydrodynamic plane of shear, or the hydrodynamic radius, away from the charge-bearing plane, that of the phosphate moities. An extended length of approximately 50 A for the 2,000 molecular weight PEG is estimated from the reduction in electrophoretic mobility.