Effects of Skin Environmental Changes by Steam Towel, Ethanol, <i>l</i>-Menthol and Carpronium on the Drug Behavior in the Minoxidil Nanoparticles-applied Mice

Abstract

We previously designed the formulation containing minoxidil (MXD) nanoparticles (MXD-NPs), and found that the MXD-NPs can mainly deliver MXD into hair bulbs via hair follicles pathway, and that the therapeutic e‹ciency for hair growth is higher in comparison with the formulation containing dissolved MXD. In this study, we investigated whether the skin environmental changes by the treatment of steam towel, ethanol, l-menthol and commercially available (CA) carpronium aŠect the drug behavior in the MXD-NPs-applied mice. The steam towel, ethanol, l-menthol and CAcarpronium were pre-treated 3 min before MXD-NPs application, and the MXD content in the hair bulge, bulb, skin tissue and blood of mice were measured 4 h after MXD-NPs application. No signiˆcant diŠerence of MXD levels in the blood was observed by the pre-treatment of steam towel, ethanol, l-menthol and CA-carpronium. On the other hand, the pre-treatment of steam towel and l-menthol enhanced the MXD levels in hair bulge and/or bulb. Although, the MXD levels in hair bulge and bulb were not changed by the pre-treatment of ethanol, the MXD levels in skin tissue was higher than that of saline-pre-treated group (control). The MXD levels in hair bulge, bulb and skin tissue of mice pretreated with CA-carpronium were remarkably higher in comparison with control. In conclusion, we showed that the changes in skin environment by the steam towel, ethanol, l-menthol and CA-carpronium aŠected the absorption of MXD-NPs, and these increased MXD levels in the hair bulb and blood by the combination may enhance the therapeutic e‹ciency without side eŠects.