Skin Permeability and Transdermal Delivery Route of 50-nm Indomethacin-Loaded PLGA Nanoparticles

The study explored the effectiveness of 50-nm and 100-nm indomethacin-loaded PLGA nanoparticles for transdermal drug delivery, focusing on their ability to permeate rat skin and target hair follicles. The nanoparticles were created using an antisolvent diffusion method that enhanced their suitability for iontophoresis due to a high surface charge number density. The findings indicated that the 50-nm nanoparticles had superior skin permeation and accumulation when iontophoresis was applied, with a 1.7 times higher concentration of indomethacin in rat skin compared to the 100-nm nanoparticles. Furthermore, the 50-nm nanoparticles penetrated deeper into the hair follicles. The study concluded that the smaller nanoparticles are more effective for hair follicle targeting and could be beneficial for transdermal drug delivery applications, including the treatment of androgenetic alopecia. However, the number of rats used in the study was not mentioned, which is a limitation in assessing the strength of the study.