Surfactants are used as solubilizing and cleaning agents in the formulation of household and personal care products. For efficient and safe use of these surfactants, it is important to have knowledge about the mechanisms of their interactions with membrane proteins, lipids, and other components particular to human skin.
That will enable us to develop a model and in turn to design the most suitable surfactant systems for specific applications. Information is being currently compiled for systems composed of surfactants, their mixtures, liposomes and proteins as well as ceramides that are components of such biomaterials as skin. Results of surface tension, ESR and fluorescence spectroscopy, viscosity, and mass spectroscopy showed solubilization of phosphatidic acid-phosphatidyl choline liposome by sodium dodecyl sulfate to be a process in which the phosphatidic acid exits first, forming the mixed micelles and destabilizing the liposomes.
It was discovered that while cholesterol stabilizes the liposomes, zein protein enhances their dissolution due to the binding of the SDS, unfolding and disrupting the regular packing of liposome components. Interestingly liposomes prepared with ceramide were found to be almost inert towards sodium dodecyl sulfate but again vulnerable in the presence of zein protein. Such infraction should prove useful for developing products that are effective but biologically benign.
