Effect of Tape Stripping on Percutaneous Penetration and Topical Vaccination

Abstract

The stratum corneum provides the first barrier to the percutaneous absorption of drugs as well as regulating water loss. This barrier limits the topical/transdermal delivery of drugs and biological macromolecules. Chemical and physical approaches have been examined to decrease these properties. Tape stripping is commonly used to disrupt the epidermal barrier, to enhance the delivery of drugs and to obtain information about stratum corneum function. Tape stripping results in the production and release of cytokines and co-stimulatory molecules and increases the humoral and cellular immune responses against peptide, protein and DNA antigens by a topical vaccination in vivo. This paper reviews the stripping method, experimental factors and its applications for penetration and topical vaccination.

Interaction of inorganic nanoparticles with the skin barrier: current status and critical review

“…Moreover, tape-stripping has been proposed by the US Food and Drug Administration as a part of the standard method to evaluate the bioequivalence of topical dermatological dosage forms. 93,94 Earlier, we also reported on the penetration of~15-nm AuNPs through human skin that had been previously tape-stripped for complete removal of the SC 77 as compared to no penetration for untreated skin specimens. However, tape-stripping of the SC before application of inorganic NPs did not always lead to satisfactory results.…”

Standardized Tape Stripping: A Practical and Reproducible Protocol to Uniformly Reduce the Stratum Corneum

“…Although tape stripping considerably increases the absorption and penetration of applied substances into the skin [25] , the reported effect is substantially dependent on the extent of the SC removal [26] . In pig skin it could be demonstrated that the outermost 4 or 5 corneocyte layers contain 40% of the lipid and constitute most of the barrier function, limiting cutaneous water loss and the absorption or penetration of substances [2] .…”

“…When the SPT is employed according to our protocol, three crucial factors remain for improved standardization: (1) the exact pressure applied to the tape strip prior to stripping (default: 'gently pressed downwards by fingertips' [11] ); (2) the exact contact time of the tape strip with the skin (default: 2 s [11] ), and (3) the exact tape strip removal rate (default: 'one quick movement' [11] ) [19,25,31,32] . Achieving these factors, one might expect that the SC reduction values would lie closer together, i.e.…”

Topical DNA Vaccination with DNA/Lipid Based Complex

“…Tape stripping is a commonly used in order to disrupt the epidermal barrier and to enhance the delivery of macromolecules [31][32][33]. In addition to disruption of the epidermal barrier, stripping enhances in vivo the T cell-mediated immune response [34].…”