Effect of liposome composition and other factors on the targeting of liposomes to experimental tumors: biodistribution and imaging studies.

We have examined the distribution of radiolabeled liposomes in tumor-bearing mice after i.v. injection. Two mouse tumors (B16 melanoma, J6456 lymphoma) and a human tumor (LS174T colon carcinoma) inoculated i.m., s.c., or in the hind footpad were used in these studies. When various liposome compositions with a mean vesicle diameter of approximately 100 nm were compared using a radiolabel of gallium-67-deferoxamine, optimal tumor localization was obtained with liposomes containing a phosphatidylcholine of high phase-transition temperature and a small molar fraction of monosialoganglioside or hydrogenated phosphatidylinositol (HPI). At 24 h after injection, average values of tumor uptake higher than 10% of the injected dose per g and liver-to-tumor ratios close to 1 were reproducibly obtained. Increasing the molar fraction of HPI from 9% to 41% of the total phospholipid resulted in enhancement of liver uptake and decrease of tumor uptake. Methodological aspects that influence vesicle size appear to affect significantly liposome localization in the tumor. However, varying the phospholipid dose within a 10-fold range caused only minor changes in the percent of injected dose recovered in the tumor. A high uptake by tumors was also observed using other radiolabels [[3H]inulin and indium-111-labeled bleomycin (111In-Bleo)] in monosialoganglioside- and HPI-containing liposomes. In the case of 111In-Bleo, encapsulation in liposomes resulted in approximately 20- to 40-fold increase in tumor accumulation of the radiolabel at 24 h after injection. The marked localization of liposomes in the mouse footpad inoculated with tumor as opposed to the contralateral mock-injected footpad was also documented by imaging experiments with gallium-67-deferoxamine and 111In-Bleo-labeled liposomes. These results support the contention that some glycolipid-containing liposomes previously shown to have long circulating half-lives accumulate significantly in a variety of tumors and are promising tools for the delivery of anti-tumor agents.