BIO-lipid^TM Delivery System

Liposomes composed of various types of lipids (fats) have been used for nearly 40 years as delivery systems for drugs, cosmetics, and many other innovative uses since they were first described in 1965³. Bioactive molecules, such as those which compose colostrum, need to cross biological membranes in order to enter the body, whether it is in the gastrointestinal tract, the skin, the pulmonary tract or the cornea, and once in the body, there are other membranous barriers to cross to get to their sites of action, such as vascular walls and the blood-brain barrier. The use of liposomes, which are generally self-assembling membrane-bound mini-capsules composed of phospholipids, has helped solve this problem.

Symbiotics New Life Colostrum is the only colostrum which replaces the colostrum globule phospholipid membranes lost in defatting in order to help protect the colostrum from the action of stomach and intestinal acids and digestive enzymes so that the bioactive molecules reach their intended targets in the body rather than being digested. Rather than use plant-derived soy lecithin or egg lecithin, which can provoke an allergic response, Symbiotics uses milk membrane globule phospholipids, which have the benefit of being from the same mammalian source (cows) as the colostrum and which is bioidentical to the membranes lost during the defatting process. The colostrum is coated with this lipid, which then forms liposomes around the colostrum. Mammalian-derived phospholipids, such as BIO-lipid, also have the advantage that they include sphingomyelin, a phospholipid only produced by animals and which plays important roles in mammalian metabolism. For example, sphingomyelin makes up a large portion of the myelin sheathes that insulate our nerves, just like the plastic or rubber sheath on an electric wire.

Phospholipids are unique in that they are bipolar molecules with one end being hydrophilic (“water-loving”) and the other end being lipophilic (“fat-loving”). This means that the liposomes will carry both hydrophilic and lipophilic molecules equally well. The bipolarity of the phospholipid molecules is what accounts for the self-assembly of the membrane when the phospholipids are introduced into a watery environment. It also accounts for the ease with which the liposome merges with other cell membranes when it encounters them, such as in the lining of the gut or on the skin. Symbiotics skin care products, which also have the BIO-lipid delivery system, are superior to non-liposomal skin care products because the ingredients are able to penetrate to much deeper levels of the skin where they can be of maximum benefit.

• Lipid vesicles form spontaneously in solution^5,6
• It has been shown that a bioidentical mix of phospholipids in the liposome produces optimal fusion with cell membranes for delivery purposes⁷
• The use of liposomes has been shown repeatedly to significantly increase the therapeutic index of drugs and other bioactive molecules^8-11
• Liposomes protect their contents from digestion in the gastrointestinal tract^11-13
• Milk fat globule membranes have been used to enhance the delivery of pharmaceutical drugs^14,15
• The four main phospholipids found in BIO-lipid, phosphatidylserine, sphingomyelin, phosphatidylcholine, and phosphatidylethanolamine, all have important biological functions on their own, including skin health^16-19, brain health^20-23, anti-stress^24-26, cell growth and differentiation^27,28, gastrointestinal health and protection^29-33, and so forth