The use of electrohydrodynamic spraying to disperse hydrophobic compounds in aqueous media

Abstract

Dispersing hydrophobic compounds in aqueous media is a challenging problem. Many methods and technologies have been, and continued to be developed to address this issue and in this article we explore electrohydrodynamic spraying (electrospray for short) as an alternative approach. In our work a model hydrophobic compound, cholesterol, was successfully dispersed into aqueous media in the form of nanoparticles via electrospray. In total, six cholesterol formulations were prepared via electrospray or bulk mixing methods. The effects of preparation methods on the appearance of the formulations, the final cholesterol concentration, and the loss of cholesterol during filter sterilization were investigated. The bioavailability of the cholesterol in the formulations was examined by culturing the cholesterol auxotrophic wild type NS0 cell line in chemically defined medium supplemented with the different cholesterol formulations. We have demonstrated that electrospray is an efficient and low energy technique to disperse hydrophobic compounds in aqueous media, and we are able to culture NS0 cells using several electrosprayed cholesterol formulations.