Porcine Ear Skin as a Model for the Assessment of Transdermal Drug Delivery to Premature Neonates

Abstract

Porcine skin, in vitro, differentially tape-stripped to specific barrier competencies, is a useful model to explore TDD in premature neonates. The potential for iontophoresis to provide improved dose control and adjustment, irrespective of skin barrier maturity, is established.

Effect of Ethanol Pretreatment on Skin Permeation of Drugs

“…Yucatan micropig (YMP) skin was selected as a permeation membrane as it has been frequently used for skin permeation studies. [10][11][12] Drug permeability and histological characteristics such as hair density in porcine skin closely resemble human skin.…”

“…Yucatan micropig (YMP) skin was selected as a permeation membrane as it has been frequently used for skin permeation studies. [10][11][12] Drug permeability and histological characteristics such as hair density in porcine skin closely resemble human skin.13-16) Furthermore, electrical skin resistance was determined to investigate the effects of EtOH pretreatment on skin permeabilities of small ions such as Na + and Cl − . The authors declare no conflict of interest.…”

Effective use of transdermal drug delivery in children

“…In addition, iontophoretic drug input is easily controllable by manipulating the intensity of current applied [106]. This was nicely illustrated for lidocaine HCl: the cumulative amounts delivered passively across intact and fully compromised skin were 0.7 ± 0.4 and 116 ± 69 µg.cm -2 , respectively, whereas iontophoretic delivery was much more efficient and essentially constant for the two scenarios, 1837 ± 583 and 1979 ± 364 µg.cm -2 [103]. In the case of phenobarbital, [105] the transdermal flux during iontophoresis increased with skin impairment and the complete removal of the SC lead to a 3.6-fold enhancement relative to intact skin.…”

“…However, while infants with poor barrier function have been successfully identified with this approach, the test remains qualitative. Further research took the view that the epidermis of preterm infants resembles "the stripped skin of an adult" and attempted to develop a model for pre-term skin based on tape-stripped pig ear skin [102][103]. The key advantage of the approach was the quantification of barrier impairment using TEWL ( A further question concerns variability and the challenge to achieve the appropriate drug input rate in neonates with different levels of skin maturity and different dose requirements.…”

“…The key advantage of the approach was the quantification of barrier impairment using TEWL ( A further question concerns variability and the challenge to achieve the appropriate drug input rate in neonates with different levels of skin maturity and different dose requirements. In this regard, the iontophoresis of lidocaine hydrochloride, phenobarbital and ranitidine has been examined [103][104][105]. The rationale for the approach is that iontophoretic transport is dictated by the relative mobility and concentration of ions present both on both the epidermal and subdermal surfaces of the skin and is less dependent on the inherent skin permeability (Fig.…”