title: In vitro models to estimate drug penetration through the compromised stratum corneum barrier.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The phospholipid vesicle-based permeation assay (PVPA) is a recently established in vitro stratum corneum model to estimate the permeability of intact and healthy skin. The aim here was to further evolve this model to mimic the stratum corneum in a compromised skin barrier by reducing the barrier functions in a controlled manner.
  
  
  METHODS
  To mimic compromised skin barriers, PVPA barriers were prepared with explicitly defined reduced barrier function and compared with literature data from both human and animal skin with compromised barrier properties. Caffeine, diclofenac sodium, chloramphenicol and the hydrophilic marker calcein were tested to compare the PVPA models with established models.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The established PVPA models mimicking the stratum corneum in healthy skin showed good correlation with biological barriers by ranking drugs similar to those ranked by the pig ear skin model and were comparable to literature data on permeation through healthy human skin. The PVPA models provided reproducible and consistent results with a distinction between the barriers mimicking compromised and healthy skin. The trends in increasing drug permeation with an increasing degree of compromised barriers for the model drugs were similar to the literature data from other in vivo and in vitro models.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The PVPA models have the potential to provide permeation predictions when investigating drugs or cosmeceuticals intended for various compromised skin conditions and can thus possibly reduce the time and cost of testing as well as the use of animal testing in the early development of drug candidates, drugs and cosmeceuticals.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pharmacy, Drug Transport and Delivery Research Group , University of Tromsø The Arctic University of Norway , Tromsø , N-9037 , Norway.
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Engesland
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pharmacy, Drug Transport and Delivery Research Group , University of Tromsø The Arctic University of Norway , Tromsø , N-9037 , Norway.
authors.forename: Nataša
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Škalko-Basnet
authors.affiliation: a Department of Pharmacy, Drug Transport and Delivery Research Group , University of Tromsø The Arctic University of Norway , Tromsø , N-9037 , Norway.
authors.forename: Gøril Eide
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Flaten
mesh_terms: D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D000818:Animals; D002110:Caffeine / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D004008:Diclofenac / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D004817:Epidermis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D010539:Permeability; D010599:Pharmacokinetics; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D012869:Skin Absorption; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D010743:Phospholipids; D004008:Diclofenac; D002110:Caffeine
keywords: Compromised skin; in vitro models; lipids; liposomes; permeation; skin