Table 2.

Experimental runs, independent variables, and measured responses of the 4¹.2¹ full factorial experimental design of DCN elastosomes compared to DCN-loaded bilosomes (A) and the observed and predicted values of the optimal elastosomes (E1) (B).

	X1: type of EA	X2: amount of EA (mg)	Y1 EE%a	Y2 PS (nm)a	Y3 PDIa	Y4 ZP (mV)a	Y5 DI (g)a
(A) Formulations
E1	Brij S2	5	96.25 ± 2.19	506.35 ± 44.61	0.46 ± 0.09	−38.65 ± 0.91	12.74 ± 2.63
E2	Brij S2	10	91.50 ± 2.33	576.65 ± 53.38	0.74 ± 0.04	−40.60 ± 0.28	5.25 ± 3.15
E3	Brij C10	5	90.20 ± 0.28	611.50 ± 150.61	0.79 ± 0.14	−35.90 ± 0.42	9.28 ± 2.29
E4	Brij C10	10	87.00 ± 0.56	368.75 ± 3.46	0.40 ± 0.11	−38.75 ± 0.71	6.75 ± 1.06
E5	Cremophore EL	5	93.85 ± 2.33	796.75 ± 69.22	0.41 ± 0.13	−37.55 ± 3.39	40.75 ± 17.30
E6	Cremophor EL	10	90.89 ± 0.27	1000.95 ± 125.93	0.69 ± 0.01	−41.65 ± 0.21	14.50 ± 13.43
E7	Cremophor RH 40	5	94.05 ± 2.61	1087.00 ± 103.23	0.27 ± 0.09	−38.35 ± 0.21	9.65 ± 2.61
E8	Cremophor RH 40	10	91.50 ± 1.69	971.50 ± 96.87	0.60 ± 0.10	−38.80 ± 0.56	35.47 ± 3.78
DCN-loaded bilosomes	–	–	100.00 ± 0.00	301.65 ± 17.32	0.39 ± 0.01	−40.15 ± 3.32	7.77 ± 0.92
(B) E1 (optimal elastosomes)
Observed values			96.25	506.35	0.46	−38.65	12.74
Predicted values			97.20	498.73	0.54	−39.34	14.33

EE%: entrapment efficiency percentage; PS: particle size; PDI: polydispersity index; ZP: zeta potential; DI: deformability index. All the prepared vesicles contained equal amounts of DCN, Span 60, STC, and CH.

^aData presented as mean ± SD (n = 3).