I am doing research on the incorporation of bile salts into liposomes and coating the exterior surface with chitosan for enhanced stability in the GIT. Eveything goes well up until the point where I need to add the chitosan solution dropwise to the preformed bilosomes suspension. Upon adding the solution, which is viscous, I notice immediate lumps being formed which I could assume may be cross-linking occurring? I obviously cannot use this formulation for further testing and characterization etc. Does anyone know how I could prevent this from occuring or what the chemistry is behind it?
first of all you need to maintain temperature by using ice bath and second is using magnetic stirrer and also add aps solution drop wise when color change then stop stirring and left overnight and the washed and obtained the desire crystal
What's happening most likely is of supramolecular nature, not cross-linking (of chemical nature) and is most likely reversible by ultrasonication or additional extrusion, however if it happens rapidly then it won't be fixed for long either. So you should consider your mixture from the different standopints like maybe chitosan is positively charged and your liposomes are negatively charged and they simply stick together? This is all about the isoelectric point so maybe try to mix the two at different lipid:chitosan monomer ratios and see if any of them work. Also you're saying that your chitosan solution is viscous, then I assume it's very concentrated, try diluting it maybe. Or try adding conc liposomes to a dilute chitosan solution. Also try sonicating it what if it helps?
Good luck
Proper sonication at the softer scale and calculted quantities of both the components in the ratio they are required may help. A dip-in or flow-on solution for coating may also be helpful! Try Rais and Saba suggestions too!
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