Chitosan-coated liposomes for enhanced skin permeation of resveratrol

In this study, chitosan-coated liposomes were investigated for use in enhanced transdermal delivery of resveratrol. Particle size, entrapment efficiency, stability, and skin-permeation efficiency were evaluated. The particle size was seen to increase on coating with chitosan, with higher concentrations of coating solution forming larger particles. The zeta potential of the liposomes also followed the same trend, i.e., it changed from a negative value for uncoated liposomes to increasingly positive values for the chitosan-coated ones. The chitosan coating was seen to increase the stability of the liposomes by preventing their aggregation. Transdermal delivery of uncoated and 0.1% chitosan-coated liposomes containing 0.1% resveratrol was investigated using Franz diffusion cells. The proportions of resveratrol that permeated the animal skin were 40.42% and 30.84% for the coated and uncoated liposomes, respectively. This increased skin-permeation efficiency with the coating could be explained by the tendency of positively charged liposomes to interact more strongly with the skin surface. These results indicate that chitosan-coated liposomes could be an effective transdermal delivery system for delaying skin aging using resveratrol.