ABSTRACT
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 336 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 336 Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) ............................................................................... 339
Principles of CLSM...................................................................................................................... 339 Major Advantages of CLSM......................................................................................................... 340 Major Limitations of CLSM.......................................................................................................... 340 Further Perspectives for CLSM Devices Used for Dermatological Applications ...................... 341
CLSM Used for Tracking Liposomal Formulations into the Skin.................................................. 341 Tracking of Entrapped and Un-Entrapped Hydrophilic Fluorescent Compounds
in Liposomes into the Skin..................................................................................................... 341 Visualization of Marker Substances Encapsulated in Vesicles of Different
Diameters on the Skin Penetration ........................................................................................ 342 Synergistic Penetration Enhancement Effect of Ethanol and Phospholipids on
the Topical Drug Delivery ...................................................................................................... 344 Visualization of Enhanced Penetration from Nanocarriers Containing Penetration
Enhancers into the Skin.......................................................................................................... 347 Penetration Studies Using Rat Abdominal Skin......................................................................... 348 Penetration Studies Using Double-Labeled Vesicles ................................................................. 349
Tracking of Fluorescence Labels into Hair Follicles ..................................................................... 350 Tracking of Fluorescently Labeled Cyclosporin A into the Rat Hair Follicles.......................... 350 Accumulation of Liposomally Entrapped Rho-PE and CF into the Human Hair Follicles ...... 350
The Efficacy of Top-Rol1 Dermaroller for Substance Penetration into the Skin ........................ 351 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................................... 353 References....................................................................................................................................... 354
The introduction of confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) for visualization of fluorescent compounds permits simultaneous viewing of multiple fluorophores, thereby increasing simplicity and accuracy of location identification of the fluorescent compounds in the skin. CLSM provides vital information regarding the interactions between nano-scaled drug carriers, like liposomes, nanospheres, and micelles, with the various cells of the skin and their accumulation, intracellular fate, and mechanism of penetration. This chapter describes various applications of CLSM to investigate skin penetration properties and specific targeting of hair follicles. Here, we will discuss the implication of CLSM in the visualization of fluorescent compounds encapsulated in lipid-based drug carriers. The enhanced skin penetration of fluorescent model compounds was confirmed by CLSM. CLSM was also used to visualize the accumulation of fluorescent model compounds encapsulated in lipid-based delivery systems in the hair follicle region. CLSM was also able to show enhanced dermal deposition of fluorescent compounds after treating the skin with Dermarollers1. Overall, CLSM technique proved to be a potential novel way of tracking compounds in the skin.
