Characterization of Retinol Stabilized in Phosphatidylcholine Vesicles with and without Antioxidants

Yekaterina G Chmykh; Jay L Nadeau

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c02102

Characterization of Retinol Stabilized in Phosphatidylcholine Vesicles with and without Antioxidants

ACS Omega. 2020 Jul 10;5(29):18367-18375. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c02102. eCollection 2020 Jul 28.

Authors

Yekaterina G Chmykh¹, Jay L Nadeau¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Physics, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon 97201, United States.

Abstract

Retinol stability has been reported to be improved by encapsulation in liposomes, both with and without cholesterol. However, this improvement is limited because of lipid peroxidation. In this study, we compare the stability of retinol in phosphatidylcholine liposomes under ultraviolet (UV) light or standard room air, with and without the addition of antioxidants. Both butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and a proprietary mix (StoppOx) improved the shelf stability from <10 to over 30 d. The addition of cholesterol had no effect. Fluorescence imaging showed a heterogeneous distribution of retinol within the vesicles, including within the aqueous layer. Fluorescence lifetimes were equally heterogeneous. Under UV irradiation, StoppOx protected retinol for significantly longer than BHT and via different mechanisms. This suggests that natural antioxidants work well to improve the retinol stability, but that further work to determine the optimal vesicle structure remains to be performed.