Dislodgeable stratum corneum exfoliation: role in percutaneous penetration?

Stratum corneum (SC) readily dislodgeable exfoliation could affect percutaneous absorption and thus influence treatment and toxicological effects. Urea, a classical enhancer, is absorbed less than 1% in vivo in man and might be a useful marker to quantify chemical-drug exfoliation. This study develops a simple model utilizing washing and tape-stripping to quantify surface loss of chemicals topically applied on human skin and estimate the extent of chemical-drug SC exfoliation.

Urea, 10% as a model hydrophilic chemical marker, was applied to human skin on identical sites (5 cm(2)/area with 1.8 mg/cm(2) urea) in vitro and in vivo. At time points 0, 4, and 6 h, the area was washed, rubbed, and stripped five times with cellophane tape. Quantitative urea was performed by colorimetric assay.

The data of the in vitro protected non-exfoliating model, as the control, showed no statistical difference between 0-, 4-, and 6-h recovery (P > 0.05). In the air-exposed model in vivo exfoliation in man, the recovery decreased from 98.8 ± 3.7% to 93.9 ± 6.8% in 4 h and 86.4 ± 3.0% in 6 h (P = 0.02). In the cloth-covered model in vivo, the recovery decreased from 99.4 ± 5.8% to 84.9 ± 5.3% in 4 h (P = 0.04), which reached 73 ± 2.8% within 6 h (P = 0.007).

This study suggests that urea, measured with washing, rubbing, and tape-stripping, can be used as a possible chemical-drug SC readily dislodgeable exfoliation and friction rubbing metric. In addition, this might help to determine the rule of skin exfoliation in dermatopharmacologic and dermatoxicologic assessment.