Recent trends in capillary electrokinetic chromatography with liposomes, lipid aggregates, and lipid emulsions

The main trends in the use of liposomes or lipid aggregates as pseudostationary phases in capillary electrokinetic chromatography (EKC) over the past 15 years are reviewed. Due to the ability of liposomes to mimic cell membranes, they have found wide applications in analytical chemistry and especially in the field of biomedical sciences. Various liposomes, lipid aggregates, and liposomal formulations have been adopted as background electrolytes in EKC and ultraviolet detection is by far the most commonly used detection mode. The possibility to vary the type of lipids and their content in the lipid aggregates has increasingly expanded the usage of liposome EKC for solving specific tasks. The presented data shows that there is great potential of liposome EKC in investigations of interactions between lipid membranes and compounds and the applications are typically related to biomedical and pharmaceutical issues, but not limited to these.