The study on new drug delivery method : Transfollicular drug delivery

1999 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 10672076
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biological pharmacy
• Research Institution: Kinki University
• Principal Investigator: OGISO Taro Kinki University, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor, 薬学部, 教授 (60082971)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TANINO Tadatoshi Kinki University, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Assistnt, 薬学部, 助手 (90236703)
• Project Period (FY): 1998 – 1999
• Keywords: scalp skin / transfollicular delivery / drug delivery / penetration mechanism

Research Abstract

Hair follicles of human scalp skin may contribute significantly to transdermal drug delivery. In this study, transfollicular penetration of lipophilic drugs (melatonin (MT), ketoprofen (KP) and terbutaline (TB)), hydrophilic fluorouracil (5-FU) and acyclovir (ACV) was investigated using human scalp skin in vitro. KP and 5-FU were easily penetrated through the scalp skin, whereas the penetration of TB and ACV were much less. The fluxes of MT and ACV were well correlated with the follicle numbers of the scalp skin. The penetration of MT, KP and 5-FU through the scalp skin was much larger than that through human abdominal skin. Lipophilic Nile Red and hydrophilic fluorescein sodium penetrated firstly through the follicles and diffused to the dermis, with the extremely rapid diffusion of flurescein sodium to the dermis. Consequently, it was clarified that the hair follicles significantly contributed to the transdermal drug delivery.