Transdermal delivery of photosensitizer by laser-induced stress wave

摘要

The skin permeability of most of drugs is low, because the stratum corneum works as a solid barrier. It is required, therefore, to enhance the skin permeability for transdermal delivery of drug. To investigate the effects of heating skin and exposing skin to a laser-induced stress wave (LISW) on the drug permeability, we tried to deliver porfimer sodium into rat's skin. The experiment was performed under the four different skin conditions; exposing to a LISW (case 1); heating (case 2); exposing to a LISW and heating (case 3); control (case 4). It was observed in all cases except the case 4 (control), the drug permeated into the dermis through the epidermis. The deepest penetration was obtained in the case 3 (a LISW plus heating). It was suggested that heating increased the fluidity of the lipid bilayers in the stratum corneum, and therefore the drag permeability might be enhanced.