Characterization of Detergent-Induced Barrier Alterations — Effect of Barrier Cream on Irritation

Abstract

To gain a better understanding of the interaction of the model detergent sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) with the stratum corneum, we investigated systematically the ultrastructural changes of the epidermal barrier and the nucleated parts of the epidermis after the occluded application of different concentrations of SLS in human. Different application models were investigated. Two of the three irritation procedures (long duration exposure and the repetitive exposure for 3 d) provoked damage of the nucleated parts of the epidermis and alterations of the lower parts of the stratum corneum. Here, the extrusion and transformation of lamellar body derived lipids into lamellar lipid bilayers were disturbed; however, the upper portions of stratum corneum displayed intact intercellular lipid layers that contradict the long-standing belief that surfactants damage the skin by delipidization. Furthermore, we investigated ultrastructurally and by measurement of transepidermal water loss the influence and protective capacity of a lipophilic barrier cream on acute irritant contact dermatitis. The irritant contact dermatitis was induced by the standardized cumulative short application model with two SLS concentrations (0.5% and 0.75%). The cumulative type of exposure simulates daily living more realistically. Because most of the previous tests have been performed on the human forearm or back, we analyzed whether the pattern of response was similar on both sites. The back showed a higher level of irritant reaction, but the pattern of irritant response proved to be similar to the forearm. Application of the barrier cream before and during irritation showed a decrease of transepidermal water loss enhancement with 0.5% SLS by 58% (back) and 49% (arm) and after irritation with 0.75% SLS by 56% (back) and 43% (arm). Because the experimental result correlated with the clinical experience, the development of the cumulative short exposure model might help to predict and to discriminate the efficacy of barrier creams.

Structural Modifications in the Stratum corneum by Effect of Different Solubilizing Agents: A Study Based on High-Resolution Low-Temperature Scanning Electron Microscopy

“…These findings are in accordance with those reported by Fartasch et al [22,23], who demonstrated a similar behavior in the interaction of sodium dodecyl sulfate surfactant (SDS) with human SC. In line with our results, these authors demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy with OsO 4 and RuO 4 staining that SDS causes mainly dam- ages in the epidermis cells and in the SC corneocyte envelopes.…”

“…Although this loss of order in the lipid structure could be the main cause of the loss of SC cohesion, the results obtained in the SC extracted with organic solvents (preservation of the cohesion but removal of the lamellar lipid structure) do not seem to support this hypothesis. Considering the present results and those reported in earlier studies about the general irritant effect of surfactant on SC in vivo [8,[22][23][24], it can be assumed that this irritant response could be associated with the disruption of the corneocyte and the corneocyte envelope. In this sense, the reinforcement or protection of these structures could reduce or even prevent this harmful effect.…”

Characterization of Surfactant-Induced Skin Damage through Barrier Recovery Induced by Pseudoacylceramides

“…It is well known that treatment with surfactants perturbs the skin barrier due to the depletion of intercellular lipids in the stratum corneum [8, 9, 18, 29]. To precisely determine the effects of Cer as major intercellular components on barrier homeostasis associated with surfactant treatment and to distinguish them from an occlusive effect (such as seen with Vaseline), we examined the repairing effects of the topical application of PACer on SDS-induced barrier perturbation.…”

Effectiveness of Barrier Creams against Irritant Contact Dermatitis

“…We identified 39 controlled trials (table 1) investigating the effect of BCs against skin irritants in a total of 929 volunteers (172 men, 279 women and 481 unspecified subjects) with healthy skin (n = 28), hand dermatitis (n = 1), skin sensitized to a specific allergen (n = 4) and 1 study on latex glove allergens [6,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52]. From these 39 papers, studies on excised skin [18,24,40,41,43,46] have been discarded, and only trials on subjects with healthy and non-sensitized skin were retained, reducing the list to 27 papers detailed in table 1.…”

“…The contact time of irritants ranges from 5 s to 24 h but the most frequent contact time is 30 min (n = 11) and 24 h (n = 4). Repetitive irritation tests, including repetitive occlusive irritation tests and tandem repetitive irritation tests, were performed in 11 studies [22,23,26,30,31,32,36,38,42,44,50]. The assessment methods often consist of clinical scoring of irritation after cutaneous patch tests (n = 17) and bioengineering methods which are habitually evaporimetry (n = 17), colorimetry (n = 12), corneometry (n = 7), flow velocimetry by Doppler laser (n = 6), spectrometry (n = 3) or other more infrequently used methods.…”