Specific inhibitory effects of hybrid liposomes on the growth of various tumor cells

The inhibitory effects of hybrid liposomes composed of lipids having a vari ety of head groups (zwitterionic L-alpha-dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DM PC), anionic L-alpha-dimyristoyIphosphatidylglycerol (DMPG), and cationic 1 ,2-dimyristoyl-3-trimethylammonium propane (DMTAP)) and polyoxyethylene (10 ) dodecyI ether (C-12(EO)(10)) on the growth of tumor cells (human lung car cinoma (RERF-LC-OK), human hepatoma (Hep-G(2)), human stomach tumor (GT3TKB )) in vitro were examined. The hybrid liposomes of DMPC/10 mol % C-12(EO)(1 0) and DMPG/10 mol % C-12(EO)(10) were fairly more effective for inhibiting the growth of all tumor cells employed in this study as compared with lipo somes (DMPC and DMPG) or micelles (C-12(EO)(10)) Especially, it is attracti ve that the highly specific inhibitory effect of the hybrid liposomes of DM PG/10 mol % C-12(EO)(10) without any antitumor drugs on the growth of RERF- LC-OK and GT3TKB was obtained for the first time.