• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.47-54
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• 1995

Transdermal patch formulations of estradiol to treat post-menopausal symptoms and prevent osteoporosis in women were developed and evaluated for the permeation characteristics through the excised hairless mouse abdorminal skin and the uterotropic effect on the ovariectomized rabbits. The design of patch formulations was optimized by varying several formulation parameters, such as type of enhancers, amount of enhancers, amount of drug loading and coating thickness. Compared to a commercially available transdermal product, several patch formulations showed the similar skin permeation profiles (following zero-order kinetics), but their skin permeation rates were lasted for the longer period (a week). In one-week uterotropic efficacy test in the ovariectimized rabbits, the selected patch formulations showed the positive effect in atrophy of the urogenital epithelium. The mean values of uterus weight in rabbits after application of patches containing estradiol were much higher than those in control group (containing no drug).

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.99-103
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• 1996

Effects of glycerin and PEG 400 in donor and receptor solutions upon skin permeation of drug were investigated. Deoxycortisone was used as a model compound. In vitro skin permeation study with freshly excised hairless mouse skin was performed and the steady-state skin permeation rates of the drug were determined in different fractions of glycerin or PEG 400 in donor and receptor solutions. Glycerin in donor solution didn't show any effect on the skin permeation rate of deoxycortisone. However glycerin in receptor solution showed significant effect on the skin permeation rate of the drug. In glycerin, there's a critical concentration for balancing hydration and dehydration of skin. At low concentration, less than 20 %, glycerin showed the enhancement of the flux due to the hydration effect of skin. At high concentration, more than 30 %, glycerin retard the permeation rate which might be due to the dehydration effect on the dermis layer. Since dermis has more water content than the stratum corneum, the steady state skin permeation rates were more influenced when glycerin was in receptor solution than that of in donor solution. PEG 400 aqueous solutions doesn't affect the steady state permeation rate of deoxycortisone significantly.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.337-345
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• 2011

The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of chemical enhancer and current on the flux of donepezil hydrochloride (DH) through skin. Ethanol and N-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) were used as chemical enhancers in combination with iontophoresis. We also have studied the effect of pH on flux and evaluated the role of electroosmosis. In vitro flux study was performed at $33^{\circ}C$, using side-by-side diffusion cell and full thickness hairless mouse skin. Passive flux of DH without enhancer was very small. As the concentration of enhancer increased, passive flux increased. After current application, flux increased markedly and the time to reach maximum decreased. Without enhancer, maximum flux was about 50 fold larger than that obtained without current. These results indicate that electromigration is playing a major role for the transport. As the enhancer concentration increased, flux also increased. NMP and ethanol increased not only the passive delivery, but also the iontophoretic delivery. Flux results indicate that ethanol has better ability than NMP in enhancing the transport of DH. The magnitudes of increase in flux by these enhancers indicate that there is a large synergistic effect in flux enhancement. Flux results from pH study showed that electroosmotic flow is reversed at low pH and the flux is hindered. These results provided some information on the flux enhancing ability of ethanol and NMP in combination with iontophoresis. The data also provided some mechanistic insights into the role of electromigration and electroosmosis on flux through skin.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.165-171
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• 2005

Itraconazole is a triazole antifungal agent to inhibit most fungal pathogens. However, it is difficult for itraconazloe to be delivered by topical system due to its poor aqueous solubility. First, niosomes containing drug were prepared with span 60, cholesterol. tocopherol and poloxamer 407 as vesicle forming agents in an effort to increase solubility of itraconazole. And then prepared niosomes were dispersed in O/W creams (containing xanthan gum, glycerin, vaseline, glyceryl monostearate and $Cerix^{\circledR}-5$) or gels (containing xanthan gum and poloxamer 407). Both creams and gels were evaluated with respect to their rheological properties, in vitro permeation through excised skin of hairless mouse. Creams or gels containing niosome showed pseudoplastic flow and hysteresis loop. For both creams and gels, viscosity was increased with increasing the content of glycerine or vaseline and the content of gel forming polymer, respectively. In creams, the permeability of drug to skin was decreased with increasing the viscosity of cream. The permeability of drug was affected by pH as well as viscosity of gel. In vitro permeation test results demonstrated that cream formulations showed better permeability than gels. In conclusion, these results suggest that creams formulation containing niosome can be useful for the topical delivery of intraconazole.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.393-399
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• 2006

This study was aimed to design, formulate and characterize the moisture-activated patches containing acyclovir for antiviral action. Gel intermediates for film-type patches were prepared with mucoadhesive polymer, viscosity builders, enhancers and acyclovir. Patches containing acyclovir were characterized by in vitro measurement of drug release rates through a cellulose barrier membrane, and of drug flux through the hairless mouse skin. Film-type patches obtained were uniform in the thickness and showed a mucoadhesive property when contacted with moisture. The formulation was optimized, which consisted of $Cantrez^{\circledR}$ AN-169(2%), $Kollidon^{\circledR}$ VA 64(1%), $Natrosol^{\circledR}$(1%), hydroxypropyl-$\beta$-cyclodextrin(1%) and dimethylsulfoxide(0.5%). Release rates of acyclovir patches increased dose-dependently. The addition of terpenes such as d-limonene or cineole increased release rates of acyclovir, but decreased permeation rates. The permeation rates were enhanced by 2 and 2.5 times by the addition of glycyrrhizic acid ammonium salt and sodium glycocholate, respectively, compared with that of no enhancer. These results suggest that it may be feasible to deliver acyclovir through the skin or gingival mucosa from the moisture-activated patches.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.259-265
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• 2002

Piroxicam is one of the NSAID, which is used in the systemic and topical treatment of a variety of inflammatory conditions. Conventionally, for topical use, the drug is formulated in gel. We designed an phonophoretic drug delivery system to investigate the piroxicam permeability and the influence of ultrasound application (continuous mode, pulsed mode), frequency (1.0 MHz, 3.0 MHz) and intensity $(1.0\;w/cm^2,\;1.5\;w/cm^2,\;2.0\;w/cm^2)$ with 0.5% piroxicam gel. Per cutaneous absorption studies were performed in vitro models to determine the rate of drug absorption via the skin. Permeation study using hairless mouse skin was performed at $37^{\circ}C$ using buffered saline (pH 7.4, 10% propylene glycol solution) as the receptor solution. Anti-inflammatory activity was determined using carrageenan-induced foot edema model in rat. A pronounced effect of ultrasound on the skin absorption of the piroxicam was observed at all ultrasound energy level studied. Ultrasound was carried out for 10 hr. The highest permeation was observed at intensity of $2.0\;w/cm^2$, frequency of 1.0 MHz and continuous output. The inclusion of phonophoresis was found to improve significantly the skin permeation in vitro and the anti-inflammatory activity in vivo.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.107-112
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• 2002

To investigate the feasibility of developing a novel melatonin plaster, the effects of vehicles and drug loading dose on the in vitro permeation of melatonin across dorsal hairless mouse skin from pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) matrices were examined. Vehicles employed were propylene glycol laurate (PGL), propylene glycol monocaprylate (PGMC) and diethylene glycol monoethyl ether (DGME). Among PSAs used, only $Duro-Tak^{\circledR}$ 87-2196 showed a good peeling property. The release from $Duro-Tak^{circledR}$ 87-2196 was proportional to the square root of time, and dose-dependent. The fluxes increased as the loading dose increased over the doses under solubility. The relatively high permeation flux $(3.03{\pm}1.37\;{\mu}g/cm^2/hr)$ was obtained when using PGMC at the melatonin loading dose of $45\;mg/140\;cm^2$. Lag time was not affected by the vehicles used but by the thickness spread. The melatonin plasters prepared using PGMC showed a good adhesive property onto skin, and showed no crystal formation.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.121-125
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• 2009

The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of applying the Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) as a tool to enhance the skin absorption of arbutin, a well-known skin-whitening agent. Arbutin solution or skin formulation was applied on the back of hairless mouse skin in vivo after IPL treatment, and then the skin deposition of arbutin was determined by HPLC. IPL treatment significantly increased the amount of arbutin in the skin after 6 hours when arbutin solution was applied 20 times. IPL also enhanced the skin deposition of arbutin when arbutin formulation was applied, although it was not significantly different. Significant increase of surface skin temperature was observed by IPL treatment, which might be a mechanism of the enhanced skin absorption of arbutin. These results suggest the feasibility of using IPL as a tool to increase the skin absorption of whitening agents, although further research needs to be conducted to understand its exact mechanism.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2010

Sibutramine is a serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor indicated for the management of obesity in conjunction with a reduced calorie diet. The oral administration of sibutramine is followed by its dose-related side effects. In this study, sibutramine was formulated into drug in adhesive (DIA) patches in an attempt to overcome these problems. The effects of different formulation variables including pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA), loading amount of drug, thickness of matrix and enhancer on the skin permeation of the drug were evaluated using excised hairless mouse skin. In the acrylic adhesive with carboxyl functional group, low release of sibutramine was observed due to the strong interaction between carboxyl group of adhesive and amine group of sibutramine. The acrylic adhesive without functional group provided good adhesion force and allowed high drug loading. Changing drug load as well as thickness of the matrix was found to alter permeation rate. $Crovol^{(R)}$ PK40 and $Crovol^{(R)}$ A40, were found to be effective enhancers for sibutramine. The optimized patch contained 20% sibutramine, and 5% $Crovol^{(R)}$ A40 as permeation enhancer, in $80\;{\mu}m$ thick Duro-$Tak^{(R)}$ 87-9301 matrix.

• Archives of Pharmacal Research
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.1187-1192
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• 2006

The aims of this study were to encapsulate arbutin (AR) in liposome to enhance the skin-whitening activity, and to investigate the effect of liposome formulation on the entrapment efficiency (EE%), skin permeation rate and skin deposition. The liposomes were prepared by a film dispersion method with several different formulations and were separated from the solution by using the gel-filtration method. The physical (size distribution, morphology) and chemical (drug entrapment efficiency, hairless mouse skin permeation and deposition) properties of liposomes were characterized. The entrapment efficiency in all liposome formulations varied between 4.35% and 17.63%, and was dependent on the lipid content. The particle sizes of liposomes were in the range of $179.9{\sim}212.8\;nm$ in all liposome formulations. Although the permeation rate of AR in the liposome formulations decreased compared with AR solution, the deposition amount of AR in the epidermis/dermis layers increased in AR liposomal formulation. These results suggest that liposomal formulation could enhance the skin deposition of hydrophilic skin-whitening agents, thereby enhancing their activities.