The Benefits Of Using A Liposome Based Product

By Brittney Swanson


Queen Victoria did not like cosmetics, and once said that were improper, only fit for use by actors and the vulgar. These are harsh words for products that form the bedrock of a multiple billion dollar industry. Ironically, and fortunately for the beauty industry, modern royalty has chosen to ignore these remarks, and are some of the biggest users of these beautifiers. Most high quality creams and gels are based on the humble liposome.

The tails do not love moisture, and are repelled, forming a permeable line that faces away from any water. In a basic biological building block, a layer of heads face the environment, attracted by the water, while another set of heads form a line inside the cell, attracted by more aqua there. The tails of one layer face those of the other, forming what many biologists term a bilayer.

The water hating tails of the two sets of heads end up facing each other. The whole structure is known as a bilayer membrane, and closely mimics the body's cell membranes. In some situations, these membranes break up, and rebuild themselves into tiny spheres, some of which have single layer walls and are known as micelles, while others have dual walls and are termed liposomes.

These vesicles have several uses and benefits. Some of their biggest users are in the pharmaceutical, beauty and medical industries. They are capable of carrying both hydrophopic and hydrophillic drugs at the same time. The latter are injected inside the enclosed aqueous space, while the former are dissolved inside the membrane. To deliver their load, they can fuse with other bilayers such as cell membranes. Others work by diffusing the drug, rather than bonding with other tissues.

This behavior provides a number of benefits to the medical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. For instance, they are used in fighting cancer. The walls of blood vessels are generally very tight, and will not allow anything large to pass through. Cancer cells, on the other hand, are the equivalent of a fish net; very leaky. Vesicles carrying drugs can be carried in the bloodstream and enter the cancer cells, releasing their deadly load and killing them.

They are also used in certain high quality beauty creams. They deliver special preparations deep inside the skin, where they are able to do their work more effectively. Such products are extremely effective at slowing down the signs of aging. Another benefit of using these particles lies in their ability to adapt to both hydrophobic and hydrophillic solutions without the use of surfactants and emulsifiers; this makes products based on these vesicles much safer to use on the skin.

Because they carry water based preparations, they are able to hydrate the epidermis, making it smooth and supple. The product, however, should not not contain chemical additives such as scent, color, synthetic oils, sunscreens and so on. These will be efficiently delivered to the body tissues as well, poisoning them.

There are also absorbed into the skin fast, which means that other products can be applied soon after. The use of these vesicles comes with a caveat; the ingredients used should not contain fragrance, colorants, sunscreens, preservatives, mineral oils among other chemicals, as these may be transported by any liposome deep into the skin, leading to a toxic reaction.




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