Synthetic polymer membranes as a proxy of skins in permeation studies of biologically active compounds

Abstract

This study provides a practical approach that can afford evaluation of drug compound permeability through the skin in which synthetic polymer membranes are used as a proxy. For this, permeation behaviors of a variety of drug molecules through the synthetic membranes were characterized under the iontophoresis condition as well as passive delivery. As a proof of concept, the permeability of caffeine and Triamiondil (TM), both of which are model drug compounds, through the membranes correlated with conventional use of porcine skin. The synthetic polymer membranes showed similar drug permeation patterns to that of the porcine skin, which allowed us to apply them to an alternate to the animal skin. Moreover, the application of iontophoresis to the device system enabled the drug molecules to pass through both the polymer membranes and porcine skin. Our study also verified that drug permeation is substantially influenced by the current direction that likely drives either electrorepulsion or electroosmosis under iontophoretic conditions.