Protection of lactate dehydrogenase against protease digestion by encapsulation in liposomes.

Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) was entrapped in phosphatidylcholine liposomes to evaluate the protective effect of liposomes against protease digestion. Three different preparations of LDH either encapsulated in liposomes, unencapsulated in liposomes or in the absence of liposomes were incubated with the protease trypsin. The loss of LDH activity was measured at intervals over a 12-hour period. The degradation rate of LDH was found to be the same when LDH was unencapsulated in the presence or absence of liposomes. However, when LDH was entrapped in liposomes the degradation rate was 4 to 24 folds slower. This finding indicates that encapsulation of a protein in a liposome protects the protein from the degrading effects of a protease enzyme.