No abstract

IFSCC Magazine, 12 (2009) (1) 9–15 Measurement of water concentration profiles across living human skin by confocal Raman spectroscopy has developed into a powerful tool for a better understanding of distribution and function of water in the epidermis. From the water profile across the epidermis the border between stratum corneum and stratum granulosum can be estimated. This is due to the steep drop in water concentration from the inner to the outer side of the stratum corneum. Water content drops from approximately 70% at the inner stratum corneum to only 30% at the skin surface. This slope of the curve becomes clearly flatter in the stratum granulosum. A second parameter is usually taken from confocal Raman spectroscopy to define the stratum corneum border. This is the content of natural moisturization factor (NMF), which should be present only in the stratum corneum. Located at the depth at which the NMF content levels off and the slope of the water profile curve changes is the stratum corneum border. The goal of this work was to develop stratum corneum thickness detection into a robust and semi‐automated measurement relying only on the water profile. Further, the aim was to base the empirical findings of water distribution in the epidermis on a well established theory, Fick's law of diffusion. A mathematical model was developed to fit the water profile curve for a robust and automated detection of the stratum corneum border. In addition, the new model automatically resulted in an accurately determined slope of the water concentration curve in the stratum corneum. This slope, or more exactly the gradient, is one of two parameters directly related to transepidermal water transport across the stratum corneum. Keywords:  Barrier function, Fick's law, Raman spectroscopy, stratum corneum, transepidermal water loss

This article describes a unique noninvasive capability to determine the concentration (in mg/cm3) and total amount of topically applied materials in the skin (in μg/cm2 of skin surface). It is based on in vivo confocal Raman spectroscopy. A theoretical derivation is given of a general method to calculate a concentration ratio from a Raman spectrum of a material in a medium, which can be a solvent or other matrix, such as the skin. A practical implementation of the method is then presented along with a clarification of the assumptions used and applied to a quantitative analysis of the in vivo skin penetration of trans‐retinol and propylene glycol (PG). A comparison was made between the concentrations profiles of retinol and PG found in the skin and the concentrations of retinol and PG that had been applied to the skin. Determination of the amount of these materials in the skin at different timepoints after topical application also enabled a straightforward calculation of the flux of materials into the skin (in μg cm−2 h).

The high-frequency electrical conductance of tapestripped human skin in vivo can be used to evaluate the hydration profile of Stratum corneum (SC). Tape-stripping provides access to the underlying SC layers, and the conductance of these layers (as measured by the Skicon instrument) correlates well with their water content, as demonstrated by independent confocal Raman spectroscopic measurements. The correlation shows high interindividual variance and is not linear over the full measurement range of the instrument, but is helpful to discriminate between dry, normal and highly hydrated SC. The depth profile of hydration in tape-stripped SC corresponds to the one in intact SC only if the barrier function of the skin is not impaired. Thus, conductometry of tape-stripped skin must be used in conjunction with a method that allows to estimate the barrier damage inflicted to SC during the tape-stripping procedure, for example, measurement of the trans-epidermal water loss. The methodology described here is simple, rapid and minimally invasive, and it employs commercially available instrumentation that is cheap, portable and easy to use. This approach is applicable to in vivo estimation of the SC hydration in studies in the areas of dermatology, skin care and transdermal drug delivery.Key words: conductance -Skicon -skin barrier -tape-strippingtransepidermal water loss Please cite this paper as: Depth profiling of Stratum corneum hydration in vivo: a comparison between conductance and confocal Raman spectroscopic measurements.

A source of urea in the skin, unrelated to the concentration circulating in the blood, was strongly suggested by extracted urea flux observed over time and by the Raman spectroscopy. This "urea reservoir" must be removed before systemic urea levels can be non-invasively monitored by reverse iontophoresis.