Biological evaluation of liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin surface-modified with a novel PEGylated nonphospholipid amphiphile.

Traumatic injury is often associated with hemorrhagic shock. Liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin (LEH) is being developed as an artificial oxygen carrier to address post-hemorrhage oxygen and volume deficit. Here, we report a new composition of LEH based on the use of polyethylene glycol (PEG2K ) conjugated with nonphospholipid hexadecylcarbamoylmethylhexadecanoate (HDAS) to modify the surface of LEH particles. LEH was manufactured by the high-pressure homogenization method using dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (∼38 mol%), cholesterol (∼38 mol%), HDAS (∼20 mol%), and highly purified stroma-free human hemoglobin. HDAS-PEG2K was postinserted into the resultant LEH to generate HDAS-PEG2K -LEH. We investigated the potential immune response to HDAS-PEG2K -LEH in a mice model. At the same time, the preparation was tested in a rat model to study the effect of repeated HDAS-PEG2K -LEH injection over 4 weeks. We found that HDAS-PEG2K modification substantially reduced the circulating levels of anaphylatoxins C3a and C5a, as well as plasma levels of thromboxane B2, in mice. Repeated injections of HDAS-PEG2K -LEH in rats did not appear to alter its clearance profile after 4 weeks of treatment. No antibody response against human hemoglobin or PEG was detected in rat plasma. Histological observations of lung, liver, spleen, and kidney were not significantly different between saline-treated rats and HDAS-PEG2K -LEH-treated rats. Immunohistochemical staining for rat heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) did not show induced expression of HO-1 in these organs. These results suggest that the new surface modification of LEH is immune-neutral and does not adversely affect histology even after repeated administration.