Effect of Low Power Microwave Irradiation on the Properties of Liposomes

The effect of low-power microwave irradiation, 0.5 W/m2 with frequency of 10 GHz on the liposome properties has been studied using the solubilization and dielectric relaxation techniques. During the long microwave irradiation, up to 170 hours, the liposomes were placed at constant temperature to exclude the microwave heating effect. For the sake of comparison the liposomes were also irradiated with low doses of gamma-rays, namely, 500 and 1500 Gy. The obtained results showed that the detergent partition coefficient and the detergent concentration in the aqueous medium were increased using both irradiation types. Moreover the dielectric parameters, dielectric increment, relaxation time and Cole parameter of the exposed liposomes were dependent on the type of irradiation indicating a changes in the conformational structure. It could be concluded that in spite of the low power of the microwave irradiation used there are noticeable changes in the liposome properties. Hence this effect merits careful analysis and consideration to explore the unclear efficacy of such radiation