VESICLES AND OTHER SUPRAMOLECULAR SYSTEMS FROM BIOCOMPATIBLE SYNTHETIC GLYCOLIPIDS WITH HYDROCARBON AND OR FLUOROCARBON CHAINS/

A series of double-tailed hydrocarbon and/or fluorocarbon glycolipids derived from galactose and glucose have been prepared. These compounds were obtained upon opening a lactono- and maltonolactone moiety by th e amino group of either a glycine, glycylglycine or lysine residue. Th e carboxyl terminus of the glycyl and glycylglycine conjugates was fur ther reacted with the appropriate double-tailed amine. In the case of lysine, the lactonamide conjugate was functionalized with a hydrocarbo n and/or fluorocarbon fatty amine and acid, respectively. The ability of such glycolipids to disperse in water, the morphology of self-assem blies formed and the stability of the supramolecular structure obtaine d were shown to depend on the presence or absence and on the nature of the aminoacid spacer. Most of the compounds described were shown by c onventional techniques (TEM, Cryo-TEM, LLS, etc.) to produce stable ve sicular systems.