pH and ionic strength triggered destabilization of biocompatible stable water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) emulsions

The design of biocompatible multiple emulsions is an important challenge in the field of controlled delivery systems for protecting and delivering compounds encapsulated and protected in the innermost phase. In this paper, we use biocompatible water – Miglyol®812 water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) emulsions stabilized by a stimuli-responsive diblock copolymer consisting of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) to design an easy-to-process new delivery W/O/W system. Such emulsions are formed in a single emulsification step. They present a high encapsulation yield and are shown to be stable over months. As such, the encapsulation of a hydrophilic dye (Alexa fluor) in the innermost water phase is successfully demonstrated over months. These emulsions are stimulable either by a shift in pH level or in ionic strength. The former destabilizes the multiple emulsion and leads to a simple one while the latter partly maintains the multiple character. Eventually both stimulations are effective in the dye release and molecular mechanisms are proposed for explaining the observed two-stage kinetics of release.