Solubilization of cholesterol in two binary mixed micelles of bile salt and nonionic surfactant

The saturated amounts of solubilized cholesterol (C_ch) in mixed micelles of sodium cholate (NaC) and octaoxy-ethylene glycol monon-decyl ether (C₁₀E₈) and of sodium zyme assay at 25, 29, 33 and 37°C. The C_ch values in both systems increase with the total surfactant concentration. Because the mixed micelles for both systems tend to form C₁₀E₈-rich micelles near the critical micellar concentration (CMC) of the mixed system, the curves of cholesterol solubility approached the C_ch curve for C₁₀E₈ alone near the CMC. The tendency of C_ch to decrease in both systems with increasing mole fractions of bile salts resembled that of the mean aggregation number of micelles. Thermodynamic analyses of cholesterol solubilization showed that the free energy of solubilization, if considered as the transfer of cholesterol from solid state to micellar environment, increased with increasing mole fraction of bile salt. The enthalpy of cholesterol solubilization (ΔH_S→M) decreased with the mole fraction of bile salts and showed break points around the mole fraction of 0.75 for the NaC−C₁₀E₈ system and at 0.60 for the NaDC−C₁₀E₈ system, respectively. These phenomena resemble earlier hydrophobicity data for mixed micelles by fluorescence measurements. Furthermore, C_ch values for the NaDC−C₁₀E₈ system were larger than those for the NaC−C₁₀E₈ system because of the structural differences at the 7α hydroxyl group between NaC and NaDC. This fact was confirmed by thermodynamic calculations.