ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the action mode of borneol on activity of epidermal skin;To investigate action mode of borneol as penetration enhancer. Methods The well-established and standard penetration enhancer Azone was employed as a positive control in this study. The cytotoxicities of borneol and Azone on HaCaT cells were detected by CCK-8 assay, and their half 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50) were calculated. The fluorescence recovery after photo bleaching was employed to investigate the effect of borneol and Azone on membrane fluidity, and the flow cytometer was used to monitor the changes of membrane potential of HaCaT cell after treated with these penetration enhancers. Results The IC50 values of borneol and Azone were 2.826 , 0.172 mmol/L, respectively. Borneol could significantly improve the membrane fluidity in a concentration-dependent manner, and effectively decrease the membrane potential of HaCaT cell, which exhibited the performances similar to those of Azone. Conclusion The penetration enhancement mechanism of borneol was associated with the concentrations of Ca2+ in keratinocytes, which changes the membrane fluidity and membrane potential of HaCaT cell.