Cytotoxicity Study of  Niosomes on Fibroblasts

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Bancha Yingngam
Nuttapun Supaka
Wandee Rungseevijitprapa

Abstract

Niosomes are synthetic analogs of liposomes in structure which offer more penetrating capability and physicochemical stability, less toxicity and improved bioavailability for entrapped drugs. A wide range of non-ionic surfactants used in the preparation of niosomes generally affect vesicle size and cellular uptake of the loaded compound into fibroblast cells. Although there have been extensive research on niosomes, effects of surfactant type, vesicle size of niosomes and niosome concentration  on cellular uptake as well as cytotoxicity need to be elucidated. The objective of this study was to evaluate toxicity of non-ionic surfactants forming niosomes on mouse fibroblasts. Toxicity of non-ionic surfactants and niosomes was studied on mouse fibroblasts using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay.  Curcumin at a concentration of 10 µM was used as a model drug and loaded in niosomes (Tween 61:cholesterol). Cellular up take of curcumin niosomes into fibroblasts was determined by high performance liquid chromatography. The results showed that the cytotoxicity of the test surfactant solutions could be ranged from the lowest to the highest as follows: non-ionic furfactants < anionic surfactant < cationic surfactant. The toxicity of niosomes was lower than those of their pure surfactant solutions. The cytotoxicity effect of niosomes with smaller particle sizes was more pronounced than that of the larger ones (p<0.05). Their toxicities depended on type of surfactants used which could be ranked from the lowest to the highest as follows: Tween 20 < Brij 72 < Span 20 < Span 60 < Superpolystate < Tween 61. The amount of curcumin niosomes taken up into the cells was in the following vesicle size order 101±6 > 197±6 > 310±19 > 506±68 > 1097±136 nm. Niosomes showed lower toxicity than the solutions of surfactant used to prepare niosomes. Cellular uptake of the smaller curcumin niosomes was higher than those of larger vesicles with increasing toxicity. Therefore, type of surfactants used, vesicle size and concentration of niosomes should be considered prior to niosomes application.

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