New nanoparticle delivery system:nanostructured lipid carriers

Solid lipid nanoparticles(SLN)have been introduced as a novel nanoparticulate de- livery system.Potential problems associated with SLN such as limited drug loading capacity,adjustment of drug release profile and potential drug expulsion during storage are avoided or minimized by the intro- duction of new generation of SLN-nanostructured lipid carriers(NLC).NLC are produced by mixing sol- id lipids with spatially incompatible lipids leading to special structures of the lipid matrix,i.e.three types of NLC-the imperfect structured type,the structureless type and the multiple type.A special prepa- ration process applicable to NLC but also SLN allows the production of highly concentrated particle dis- persions(30%～95%).Potential applications as drug delivery system were described.