Effect of Drug Substances on the Microviscosity of Lipid Bilayer of Liposomal Membrane

The microviscosites of the lipid bilayers of liposomal membranes of phospholipids were measured by the intermolecular excimer, formation method employing pyrene as a fluorescence probe, and the effects of n-alkanols and other local anesthetics on the microviscosity were investigated. The results showed that the n-alkanols and the ohter local anesthetics effectively lowered the microviscosity of the lipid bilayer of the dipalmitoyl phosphatidycholine liposomal membrane in proportion to the concentration of the additives. Moreover, there was a fairly good correlation between the ocal anesthetic activities and the microviscosity-lowering activities of these drugs. This results suggests that the nerve blocking activity of local anesthetics might have some relation with their activity fluidizing the lipid bilayer of biomembrane.