Assessment of ocular irritability of liposome preparations.

Ocular irritability of neutral or positively charged liposomes were assessed by the Draize test, histological examination and the rabbit blinking test. The mean total score (MTS) of the Draize test showed a slight increase immediately following instillation of liposome preparations. However, it did not exceed the "practically nonirritating level", and the MTS rapidly became less than the "nonirritating level". No corneal histological alteration was observed by optical microscopy following 9 instillations of each liposome preparation. Although the neutral liposome preparation failed to increase the rabbit blinking count, the positively charged liposome preparation did so to a significant degree. The neutral liposome preparation was confirmed not to give rise to ocular irritation. However, the positively charged liposome preparation may cause pain or unpleasantness following instillation.