Second generation lipid systems for the delivery of bioactive compounds have been developed by mixing a liquid carrier oil with a solid lipid to form so-called nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). In this study, we investigated the effect of different liquid carrier oils on the crystallization and aggregation behavior of tristearin NLC dispersions. We found that NLC suspension stability was strongly affected by the type and amount of the carrier oil. As the oil concentration was increased, the crystallization and melting temperatures decreased, the polymorphic transformation rate increased, the particles became more spherical, and suspension stability was enhanced. These results suggest that oil trapped within the growing crystal matrix accelerated polymorphic transformation but retarded the large shape change normally associated with the transformation. We also found that considerably less surfactant was necessary to produce stable NLC suspensions than was required to stabilize solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) suspensions without a carrier oil. Based on preliminary simulation results, we hypothesized that improved NLC suspension stability was attributable to both reduced particle shape change, which created less new surface area to be covered by surfactant, and increased mobility of surfactant molecules, which resulted in available surfactant being more efficient at covering created surface area.
Keywords: Aggregation modeling; Nanostructured lipid carriers; Particle aggregation; Solid lipid nanoparticles.
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