Percutaneous absorption of methotrexate

The Mystical Effects of Dermatological Vehicles

Topical treatment of the skin is as old as the evolution of man. Instinctively, we try to treat a skin injury or irritation with cooling or soothing substances. Even animals lick their wounds, trusting instinctively in the healing power of saliva. When did this archaic pattern of treatment take the gigantic leap from folk medicine to modern drug therapy? This text illustrates the evolution of topical dermatological vehicles, their application (guidelines) and future use. In particular, a phenomenon that has so far been ignored in product development and clinical testing is the vehicle metamorphosis. In clinical and experimental situations, most dermatological vehicles undergo considerable changes after they have been removed from the primary container and are applied to the skin. Subsequently, the initial structural matrix, and the quantitative composition of the vehicle, will most likely change during and after the mechanical shear associated with application of the product and/or evaporation of ingredients. This natural, but highly dynamic process will generate mini-environments for the active moiety that are difficult to predict and that are crucial to the fate of the active moiety. Despite the reasonable wishes of formulators, clinicians, patients and customers, there are still no universal vehicles. Each drug, at each concentration, requires a different vehicle for optimized therapy. Stability and compatibility of excipients and active moiety are crucial for any commercially available pharmaceutical or cosmetic formulation, together with local and systemic safety of all components. Nonetheless, more diverse and molecularly complex classes of new dermatological vehicles are continuously being researched and refined. The scientific progress has been remarkable when one considers the simple emulsion mixtures that were commonplace in dermatological therapy and still persist to this day in commercial products. It is to be hoped that the result of these research endeavors will be the emergence of more innovative topical formulations, applying engineered bioavailability control systems, with broader applications in topical therapeutic and cosmetic vehicles.

A multisample apparatus for kinetic evaluation of skin penetration in vitro: the influence of viability and metabolic status of the skin

An apparatus is described for convenient in vitro quantitation of the rate, extent, and character of living skin penetration by chemicals. Evidence that viability markedly affects epidermal penetration was based upon observations utilizing benzo(a)pyrene. This compound displayed saturation kinetics in the extent of penetration, marked elevation in the rate, and extent of penetration following induction of epidermal mixed function oxidase and negligible penetration of skin previously frozen. These data are interpreted to indicate that for certain compounds, such as benzo(a)pyrene where cutaneous metabolism is expected, meaningful in vitro measures of skin penetration should take into consideration the biochemical viability and metabolic status of the tissue.

Factors affecting human percutaneous penetration of methotrexate and its analogues in vitro

Factors affecting the percutaneous penetration of methotrexate (MTX) and its analogues through excised human skin were studied. With application of 0.05% MTX solution to the epidermis, 0.07% of the applied dose was recovered in the epidermis and less than 0.005% penetrated completely through the skin. The percent of drug which penetrated remained constant from 0.05% to 2.0% MTX and was also unchanged by increasing incubation temperature from 28 degrees C to 37 degrees C. Cellophane tape stripping of stratum corneum following drug incubation removed essentially all the MTX that had been measured in whole epidermis. Binding of MTX was localized to the outermost layers of the stratum corneum. With removal of the stratum corneum prior to drug incubation, 25% of the applied MTX penetrated through the skin. Various vehicles were tested to determine their effect on MTX percutaneous absorption. Dimethylsulfoxide (80%), dimethylacetamide (25%), or retinoic acid (0.1%) had no effect on penetration. Maximum enhancement of penetration by 25-fold and 143-fold was obtained with retinoic acid (saturated solution in aqueous ethanol) and C-10-methylsulfoxide (2.5%), respectively. The penetration of lipid-soluble derivatives of MTX was also tested. The compound that penetrated best was the dimethyl ester of dichloro-MTX with a 3-fold increase in penetration over MTX.

Percutaneous absorption on the relevance of in vitro data

The use of in vitro preparations of human skin to study percutaneous absorption is widespread. Yet, up to the present time, little has been done to systematically validate this model and demonstrate the extent to which it mimicks in vivo absorption. In this study, the permeability of 12 organic compounds has been evaluated in excised skin and the results compared to those obtained previously by others in living man. With special emphasis being given here to duplicating in vivo conditions, it was possible to demonstrate an excellent qualitative agreement between the two methods. In all cases, the absorption pattern determined in vitro rather precisely paralleled the pattern which was obtained in vivo. Quantitative agreement between the two sets of data was less than perfect, although the in vitro method adequately distinguished compounds of low permeability from those of high permeability and ranked then in approximately the same order found in vivo. This systematic comparison of in vitro with in vivo data was clearly shown how accurately in vitro absorption studies can reflect the living state.