Use of the skin sandwich technique to probe the role of the hair follicles in sonophoresis.

The human skin sandwich technique was used to explore the effect of brief ultrasound exposure on the transfollicular pathway of absorption. Hydrocortisone was used as a model drug. In order to calculate the permeability coefficient of hydrocortisone, its concentration at saturation in the PBS donor solution was determined. Skin samples were prepared by sandwich technique with total hydration of the epidermal and sandwich membranes. The skin was sonicated for 0 s (control), 30 s or 45 s using a pulsed mode (10% duty cycle) with the spatial and temporal average intensity (SATA) of 3.7 W/cm(2). The transducer was then removed and permeation was allowed to proceed for 52 h. Then the percentage follicular contribution was determined. It was determined that without ultrasound, drug entry into follicles accounted for 46% of total penetration. As the duration of sonication increased, the follicular contribution fell to zero even though total transepidermal flux dramatically increased. This is explained by ultrasound exposure causing sloughing off of the uppermost stratum corneum. This permeabilises the continuous surface but at the same time the disturbed cornceocytes will plug hair follicle orifices.

Transepidermal water loss for probing full-thickness skin barrier function: correlation with tritiated water flux, sensitivity to punctures and diverse surfactant exposures.

Skin barrier function is a key parameter to consider when performing in vitro percutaneous absorption studies. Whilst tritiated water flux measurements were often used to assess skin integrity, recent decades have witnessed the emergence of the more rapid and user-friendly transepidermal water loss (TEWL) approach. Yet to date, the nature of the correlation between TEWL and skin barrier function in vitro has still not been comprehensively established. In this study, a novel TEWL device, operating on a cold-induced vapour sink principle, was used to probe the barrier function of full-thickness porcine skin. The method was sufficiently sensitive to show the influence of punctures on barrier function although the observed non-linear pattern suggested tissue swelling processes and/or capillary action could be occurring. The results of various surfactant application experiments strongly suggested that TEWL was indeed largely predictive of skin sample integrity. A key finding was that basal TEWL was linearly correlated with basal tritiated water flux (r(2)=0.80, n=63). Thus, a dedicated TEWL method can be used as a good alternative to water flux measurements for assessing full-thickness skin barrier function.

Factors influencing hydrocortisone permeation into human hair follicles: use of the skin sandwich system.

The aim of the present study was to use the in vitro human skin sandwich system in order to quantify the influence of formulation variables on intrafollicular hydrocortisone permeation. The investigated variables were the pH and the viscosity of the topical formulation as well as the presence of chemical enhancers (carvone, menthone, oleic acid and sodium lauryl sulphate). Furthermore, skin sandwich hydration was also varied in order to determine if the method itself can be run using only partially hydrated skin tissues. It was determined that the follicular contribution to hydrocortisone flux decreased marginally with increasing alkalinity in the pH range 3-8.8. Intrafollicular penetration was markedly reduced when HPMC gels were used instead of an aqueous solution. Pretreating the skin with chemical enhancers also reduced the follicular contribution to flux, probably due to permeabilisation of the continuous stratum corneum. Furthermore, it was not possible to satisfactorily modify the skin sandwich method so that it could be deployed using less hydrated skin.

In-vitro permeation of drugs into porcine hair follicles: is it quantitatively equivalent to permeation into human hair follicles?

It is already well-established that the general permeability properties of porcine skin are close to those of human skin. However, very little is known with respect to drug absorption into hair follicles and the similarities if any between the two types of tissue. The aim of this study was to use the skin sandwich system to quantify follicular drug absorption into porcine hair follicles. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the skin sandwich has been extended to porcine tissue. For this purpose, seven different drugs -- estradiol, corticosterone, hydrocortisone, aldosterone, cimetidine, deoxyadenosine and adenosine -- exhibiting a wide range of log octanol-water partition coefficients (log K(o/w)), but comparable molecular weights, were chosen as candidate solutes. The results showed a parabolic profile with maximal follicular contribution occurring at intermediate log K(o/w) values. Linear regression analysis indicated that the follicular contributions in porcine skin correlated well with previously published follicular contributions in human skin (r(2) = 0.87). The novelty of this research is that we show that porcine tissue is a good surrogate for modelling human skin permeability within the specific context of quantifying drug absorption into hair follicles.

Evidence that drug flux across synthetic membranes is described by normally distributed permeability coefficients.

Over recent decades, the use of in vitro diffusion cell studies to assess skin permeability has evolved into a major research tool, providing key insights into the relationships between skin, drug and formulation. Sometimes, such studies involve synthetic membranes as this approach can yield useful inferences with respect to drug-skin partitioning and diffusion phenomena. Yet despite the popularity of such studies, it is still not at all known whether typical solute transport across synthetic barriers results in a normal distribution of permeability coefficients or alternatively some type of skewed distribution. The present study aims to shed light on this issue. To this end, five compounds (testosterone, oestradiol, corticosterone, aldosterone and adenosine) exhibiting a broad range of octanol-water partition coefficient values were selected as test penetrants. The protocol involved taking multiple replicate measurements of each drug's passive steady state flux through poly(dimethylsiloxane) membrane. Each penetrant's resultant permeability coefficient database was subjected to a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test for normality. It was found that the permeability coefficients of all five drugs were distributed in a Gaussian-normal fashion. The theoretical significance and practical impact of these findings are discussed.

The influence of drug partition coefficient on follicular penetration: in vitro human skin studies.

The aim of this study was to employ the novel skin sandwich system in order to quantify the influence of the octanol-water partition coefficient on follicular drug absorption in human skin. To this end, seven different drugs - estradiol, corticosterone, hydrocortisone, aldosterone, cimetidine, deoxyadenosine and adenosine - exhibiting a wide range of log octanol-water partition coefficients (logK(o/w)) but relatively similar molecular weights were selected as candidate solutes. Application of the skin sandwich technique yielded an interesting relationship between % follicular contribution and logK(o/w). The follicular contribution to total flux was small (4 and 2%) for the two most lipophilic drugs but varied between 34 and 60% for the remaining drugs of intermediate and low logK(o/w) values. Lipophilicity seems to be an important modulator of drug absorption into follicular orifices only above a critical logK(o/w) threshold. Below this critical logK(o/w) value, lipophilicity does not apparently influence the follicular contribution in an obvious way and the process is probably governed by other molecular properties. Identification of these other active properties would require performing this kind of a study on a much larger set of candidate drugs.

Towards a correlation between drug properties and in vitro transdermal flux variability.

Over recent years, there has been growing evidence that the permeability coefficient variability describing any specific transdermal drug delivery system is not always normally distributed. However, since different researchers have used different test compounds, methodologies and skin types, it has been difficult to identify any general correlation between drug properties and flux variability. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether there was a relationship between these two variables. To this end, six different compounds (sucrose, adenosine, aldosterone, corticosterone, oestradiol and testosterone) exhibiting a range of partition coefficients but relatively similar molecular weights were screened by taking multiple replicate measurements of their permeation profiles as they penetrated across porcine skin in vitro. It was found that for relatively hydrophilic solutes (log P(o/w)< or = approximately 2.5), physicochemical properties that facilitated slow transdermal flux were associated with more positively skewed permeability coefficient distributions while rapid flux was associated with more symmetric distributions. However, no correlation could be found between molecular properties and the extent of statistical fit to either the normal or log-normal distribution.

Assessment of drug permeability distributions in two different model skins.

Past in vitro studies with human skin have indicated that drug permeability coefficient (Kp) distributions do not always follow a Gaussian-normal pattern. This has major statistical implications, exemplified by the fact that use of t-tests to evaluate significance is limited to normally distributed populations. Percutaneous absorption research often involves using animal or synthetic skins to simulate less readily available human skin. However, negligible work has been performed on assessing the permeability variabilities of these model membranes. This paper aims to fill this gap. To this end, four studies were undertaken representing two different drugs (caffeine and testosterone) with each drug penetrating through two different model skins (silicone membrane and pig skin). It was determined that in the silicone membrane studies, both compounds' Kp distributions could be fitted to a normal pattern. In contrast, in the pig skin studies, there were notable differences between each drug. While the testosterone Kp values could be fitted to a normal distribution, this was not possible with the caffeine Kp data, which could be fitted to a log-normal distribution. There is some evidence from the literature as well as physicochemical considerations that these outcomes may reflect general trends that are dependent upon both membrane and penetrant properties.