Design of Liquid Crystalline Carrier of Ceramide

Abstract

Ceramides, which compose skin barrier, play a crucial role in preventing skin dehydration. Thus, supplying much of ceramides to skin is an important goal in cosmetic applications. To contain ceramides in cosmetics, lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) has been used as a carrier. However, hydrophobicity and hydrogen bonds of ceramides, which cause condensation in aqueous solutions, limit the content of ceramides.(<1 wt%) [1]. Also, LLC carriers in aqueous solutions are not intrinsically unstable due to their hydrophilic nature. Here, to overcome the previous limitations, we propose a cholesterol-based thermotropic liquid crystals (CLCs) for the ceramides carrier that have not only biocompatible but also hydrophobic nature. We confirm self-assembly of ceramides by transition of CLC droplets texture from planar to perpendicular. The result demonstrates that the presence of hydrophobic (CLC)-hydrophilic (aqueous solution) interface facilitate the self-assembly of ceramides at the interface because of amphiphilic properties of ceramides. Thus, thermotropic LCs carrier significantly increase the doping concentration of ceramides in the aqueous solution.