Temperature-controlled continuous production of all-trans retinoic acid-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles using static mixers

This work aims to develop a temperature-controlled continuous solvent emulsification-diffusion process to synthesize all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA)-loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) using static mixers. ATRA-loaded SLNs of around 200 nm were obtained when the flow rates of the organic and aqueous phases were 50 ml min(-1) and 500 ml min(-1), respectively. It was found that the lipid concentration played a dominant role in the size of the obtained SLNs, and higher drug concentration resulted in relatively low entrapment efficiency. The encapsulation of ATRA in the SLNs was effective in improving its stability according to the photo-degradation test. The in vitro release of SLN was slow without an initial burst. This study demonstrates that the solvent emulsification-diffusion technique with static mixing is an effective method of producing SLNs, and could easily be scaled up for industrial applications.