The influence of skin structure on permeability: an intersite and interspecies comparison with hydrophilic penetrants

For reasons that are unclear, skin from various body sites has different permeability properties. We have used hydrophilic penetrants (water, ethanol, mannitol, and paraquat) to study the in vitro permeability of skin from marmoset (eight body sites), man, and rat. Skin structure (stratum corneum thickness and number of cell layers; epidermal and dermal thickness; number and area of hair follicle openings per mm2) was compared with permeability. There was no apparent relationship between skin structure and permeability to the most rapid penetrants, water and ethanol. Follicle area opening was the structural feature that varied most between species and between body sites. Different marmoset body sites showed a threefold range in follicle area but this did not appear to influence the absorption rates of the test penetrants. However, among the species there was an 80-times range in follicle area, which correlated with the observed differences in rate of mannitol and paraquat absorption. Thus, permeability could be related to inter-species differences in skin structure, but only with the relatively slowly absorbed test penetrants, mannitol and paraquat.