Effect of liposome composition on calcium phosphate formation and transformation

Biomineralization, formation of hard tissues in organisms, continues to inspire the scientist to discover novel synthetic routes for advanced materials synthesis. From physical-chemical point of view it can be considered as a precipitation/crystallization process of inorganic minerals within the organic matrix and/or confined environments. The liposomes are typical experimental model of confined environment in which biomineralization can occur. However, the influence of lipid molecules’ structure or their chemical composition (anionic, cationic, zwitterion), on biomineralization is still not understand. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of three lipids (dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine, DMPC, dimyristoylphosphatidylserine, DMPS and phosphatidylcholine, EPC) with different charge of their polar heads, on CaP precipitation. Two precipitation strategies were investigated: i) fusion of liposomes loaded with constitutive ions (Ca2+ and HPO42–) and ii) spontaneous precipitation of CaP in the presence of liposomes. It was shown that DMPS has the strongest influence on the precipitation and transformation of the CaP, in both precipitation systems. The obtained results may contribute to the understanding of the general mechanism of inorganic–organic interactions underlying the biomineralization processes, as well as for materials science.