Long-Term Skin Permeation Kinetics of Estradiol (I): Effect of Drug Solubilizer-Polyethylene Glycol 400

Abstract
A skin permeation cell was recently developed to overcome the deficiencies noted in the currently available in vitro diffusion cells, and to provide a cell design which is suitable for studying the long-term drug permeation kinetics through the skin and is also sensitive enough for assessing the mechanisms of skin permeation by a high performance liquid chromatography. To evaluate the rote of drug reservoir concentration in the kinetics of skin permeation as well as to maintain a sink condition in the receptor solution, the water-miscible polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 was incorporated into the saline solution to act as a solubilizer to enhance the aqueous solubility of the relative water-insoluble estradiol. The equilibrium solubility of estradiol at 37°C was observed to in crease exponentially as increasing the volume fraction of PEG 400 added. The rates o f permeation of estradiol across the male and female hairless mouse, whole and stripped skins excised freshly from the abdominal region, were measured a t various PEG concentrations and the permeability coefficients were determined. The permeability co-efficients were found t o decrease as increasing the PEG concentration. A linear relationship was established between th e permeability co-efficients and the skin /solution partition coefficients and the steady-stated if fusivity was calculated. Effect of sex was assessed. The rate of permeation and the permeability coefficient across the stratum corneum were determined, using t h e multi-laminated dif-fusional resistance model. Results demonstrated that the stratum corneum acts as the rate-limiting barrier in the skin permeation of estradiol and the incorporation of upto 40% v/v PEG 400 does not in-fluence the barrier propertiesof stratum corneum, even though PEG 400 has been found to affect the aqueous solubility, permeability co-efficient, and skin /solution partition coefficient of estradiol.
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