Analysis of Hair Follicle Penetration of Lidocaine and Fluorescein Isothiocyanate-Dextran 4 kDa Using Hair Follicle-Plugging Method
April 2013
in “
Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy
”
TLDR Hair follicles are important for the absorption of certain drugs into the skin.
The study investigated the role of hair follicles (hfs) in drug permeation using a hair follicle-plugging method on pig ear skin with lidocaine (LC) and fluorescein isothiocyanate-dextran 4 kDa (FD-4) as model drugs. Results showed that skin permeabilities of ionized LC and FD-4 decreased with hf-plugging, while unionized LC's permeation remained unchanged. A correlation was found between skin permeability and the number of hfs plugged for ionized LC and FD-4. The study concluded that the hf pathway was significant for the permeation of ionized and hydrophilic high molecular compounds, while the stratum corneum pathway contributed to the permeation of unionized LC. The hf-plugging method proved useful for assessing skin permeability through the hf pathway.