Adsorption of a PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymer on small unilamellar vesicles:: Equilibrium and kinetic properties and correlation with membrane permeability

The adsorption of the triblock copolymer F127, poly(ethylene oxide)-poly(propylene oxide)-poly(ethylene oxide), EO98PO67EO98, Onto immobilized small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) of egg phosphatidylcholine (EPC) has been studied by means of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). With this technique we first show that SUVs of EPC adsorb on gold to form a monolayer of vesicles. This supported monolayer of vesicles was then used to follow the adsorption of the F127 polymer onto the lipid membrane surface. The adsorption of F127 was found to be a rapid process, and the measured polymer binding isotherm was fitted to a Freundlich type of isotherm. The maximum, or plateau, adsorbed amount was determined to be of a magnitude similar to that found for adsorption of F127 on hydrophobic surfaces. Furthermore, the desorption of the triblock copolymers from the membrane surface was followed after rinsing the SW monolayer with pure buffer. It was found that the desorption process displayed essentially the same rapid kinetics as the adsorption process, indicating a weak interaction between the polymers and the lipid membrane. The determined polymer binding isotherm was used to correlate the adsorbed amount of polymer with the polymer-induced leakage of carboxy fluorescein (CF) from the SUVs. It was found that the membrane permeability was increased severalfold already at low surface coverage and that the maximum magnitude of the CF release rate was obtained at, or close to, F127 concentrations giving rise to the maximum adsorbed amount of polymer. In addition, the increased membrane permeability induced by the triblock copolymers was compared with the effect of adding a conventional ethylene oxide (EO) surfactant, Triton X-100, to the SUVs. The result emphasizes the dramatic effect of F127 on the bilayer permeability.