Table 2.

Comparison of physicochemical features of Surfactant Vesicles (SVs) to liposomes.

	Catanionic Vesicles	Phospholipid Liposomes
Constituents	Inexpensive surfactants ($1/kg)	Expensive phospholipids ($1000/kg)
Formation	Spontaneous	Sonication, extrusion, electroformation, and biphasic evaporation techniques
Stability	Years at room temp. in saline	Days at room temp. in saline
Entrap ionic solutes or nonpolar molecules	Highly efficient 1	Inefficient
pH	2–12 1	6–8
Heating	85 °C max 1	42 °C max
Sterilization	Maintain integrity after autoclaving 1	Integrity disrupted by autoclaving

¹ Data supporting these conclusions are found in Stocker PhD thesis, University of Maryland [29].