Comparative study of liposomes, transfersomes and ethosomes as carriers for improving topical delivery of celecoxib

Figures & data

Table 1.  Composition of the lipid phase of the different kinds of vesicular systems examined.

Kind of vesicular system	Composition (% w/v)
	PC	CHOL	Surfactant	Edge activator
Liposomes	4.6	0.66	0.24	–
Transfersomes or ethosomes	4.4	–	–	0.66

Table 2.  Mean vesicle size (n = 6), polydispersity index (PDI) (n = 6) and entrapment efficiency (EE%) (n = 5) of the different CXB-loaded (0.5% w/v) vesicular dispersions.

Batch	Kind of vesicular formulation	Vesicle size (nm ± S.D.)	PDI	EE%
A	Liposomes with SA	546.4 ± 16.5	0.317 ± 0.016	7.2 ± 1.2
B	Transfersomes with SC	498.9 ± 8.9	0.360 ± 0.047	21.4 ± 2.2
C	Transfersomes with Tween 20	516.3 ± 11.0	0.287 ± 0.030	31.5 ± 3.1
D	Transfersomes with Tween 80	483.2 ± 8.5	0.256 ± 0.018	37.1 ± 3.5
E	Ethosomes with SC	484.3 ± 29.4	0.634 ± 0.114	n.a.
F	Ethosomes with Tween 20	258.4 ± 3.3	0.190 ± 0.045	54.4 ± 4.2
G	Ethosomes with Tween 80	342.1 ± 1.3	0.208 ± 0.013	37.5 ± 3.4

Figure 1.  Transmission electron micrographs of liposomes (batch A), transfersomes (batch D) and ethosomes (batch F; see Tables 1 and 2 for batch formulation composition).

Table 3.  Mean vesicle size, polydispersity index (PDI) and entrapment efficiency (EE%) of the selected CXB-loaded (0.5% w/v) vesicular systems after 30 days storage at 4°C and room temperature (25°C).

Batch	Size (nm) (n = 6)		PDI (n = 6)		EE% (n = 5)
	Day 0	Day 30	Day 0	Day 30	Day 0	Day 30
A, 4°C	546.4 ± 16.5	541.4 ± 17.5	0.317 ± 0.016	0.322 ± 0.014	7.5 ± 1.2	7.1 ± 1.3
A, 25°C	546.4 ± 16.5	573.4 ± 20.5	0.317 ± 0.016	0.340 ± 0.021	7.5 ± 1.2	5.9 ± 1.5
D, 4°C	483.2 ± 8.5	489.2 ± 9.5	0.256 ± 0.018	0.262 ± 0.019	37.1 ± 3.5	36.3 ± 3.7
D, 25°C	483.2 ± 8.5	498.2 ± 11.5	0.256 ± 0.018	0.278 ± 0.023	37.1 ± 3.5	34.0 ± 3.9
F, 4°C	258.4 ± 3.3	260.4 ± 4.3	0.190 ± 0.041	0.194 ± 0.045	54.4 ± 4.2	54.0 ± 4.2
F, 25°C	258.4 ± 3.3	263.4 ± 5.3	0.190 ± 0.041	0.199 ± 0.049	54.4 ± 4.2	52.2 ± 4.2

See Table 2 for batch compositions.

Figure 2.  Amount of Celecoxib (CXB) penetrated into the excised human skin after 4 h from application of the three kinds of selected vesicular formulations (liposomes, batch A; transfersomes, batch D; ethosomes, batch F) and of an aqueous drug suspension as reference (see Tables 1 and 2 for batch formulation composition; each result is the mean of five separate experiments).