Increase of lipid fluidity and suppression of proliferation resulting from liposome uptake by human keratinocytes in vitro.

The in vitro effects of liposomes on HaCaT human keratinocytes were studied with regard to their uptake, lipid fluidity and proliferation of the cells. Oligolamellar liposomes, prepared from soya bean phospholipids, had a mean size of 150 mm and consisted predominantly of phosphatidylcholine (83%) and phosphatidylethanolamine (10%) and the fatty acids comprised mainly linoleic acid (66%) or other unsaturated fatty acids. After 6 and 24 h of incubation with 1 and 0.1% w/v of liposomal lipids, phase-contrast microscopy revealed marked cytoplasmic vacuolization of the cells. Keratinocytes treated with the liposomes contained aggregations of multilaminated lipid material without delimiting cell membranes. The cellular lipid fluidity (reciprocal of diphenylhexatriene fluorescence polarization P-value) correlated with liposomal concentration and incubation time. A significant elevation of lipid fluidity (P less than 0.05) was observed with 1 and 0.1% liposomes after 1 h of incubation (81.8 +/- 4.7 and 95.7 +/- 1.2% of control P value) and for 0.01% liposomes after 3 h (96.2 +/- 1.5%). Maximum fluidity occurred after 48 h of exposure to 1% liposomes (42.1 +/- 3.1%). Exposure to liposomal lipids for 24 and 48 h resulted in suppressed cell proliferation with 50% inhibition concentrations (IC50), being 0.06% for incorporation of [3H]-thymidine. 0.08% for [14C]-amino-acid incorporation and greater than 1% for protein content per well after 24 h of exposure. The cells were able to proliferate and lipid fluidity returned to normal within 7 days following discontinuation of incubation with liposomal lipids.