Impact of Surfactants on Skin Penetration of Dexpanthenol

Title:Impact of Surfactants on Skin Penetration of Dexpanthenol

Volume: 15 Issue: 3

Author(s): Flavia Laffleur*, Stefan Pschick, Jan Barthelmes, Sabine Hauptstein and Andreas Bernkop-Schnurch

Affiliation:

• Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, Institute of Pharmacy, Center for Molecular Biosciences Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 80/82, 6020 Innsbruck,Austria

Keywords: Cell culture, delivery, penetration, safety testing, skin barrier, surfactants.

Abstract: Objective: It was the aim of this study to evaluate the impact of nonionic and ionic surfactants on skin penetration of dexpanthenol.

Methods: The relative potency of three surfactants (two nonionic and one ionic) as enhancers in the permeability of a series of compounds was investigated. The influence of the enhancers was also studied. For this purpose, porcine abdominal skin was prepared and mounted on Franz diffusion cells, while different mixtures of Dexpanthenol containing Tween®85, SDS and Span®80 in concentrations of 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 5% (m/V) were evaluated in terms of their permeation enhancing effect. The amount of permeated drug was determined via HPLC analysis. Moreover, the cytotoxicity and skin irritating effect of the compounds were tested on Caco-2 cells.

Results: The cytotoxicity profile of Dexpanthenol showed no toxicity to the cells over 1 and 3 h of incubation. The permeation was evaluated over a time period of 180 min, whereas a ranking of SDS> Span>Tween could be determined as permeation enhancer.

Conclusion: Taking these findings into consideration, concentration of 1% (w/w) surfactant showed the most promising results. The increase in flux based on low concentrations of enhancer was ascribed to their ability to reduce skin´s barrier and improve drug permeation. The results showed that the nature of enhancer greatly impacts cutaneous barrier impairment.

Cite this article as:

Laffleur Flavia *, Pschick Stefan, Barthelmes Jan , Hauptstein Sabine and Bernkop-Schnurch Andreas , Impact of Surfactants on Skin Penetration of Dexpanthenol, Current Drug Delivery 2018; 15 (3) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1567201814666170503142707