ABSTRACT
The skin is an organized, heterogeneous, multilayered organ. The stratum corneum (SC), epidermis (SCE), and dermis (D), together with the appendages and the vasculatures, constitute the living protective systemaround the body. Percutaneous absorption of surface applied agents is the sumof thepenetration andpermeationof a chemical into and through the stratum corneum, epidermis, and some part of the dermis (1-5). In this investigation, the contribution of three skin layers to stratum corneum percutaneous absorption was evaluated by quantifying partitioning of model compounds between skin layers and vehicles [water and isopropyl myristate (IPM)]. The influences of drug concentrations, equilibration time, vehicle hydrophilicity, lipophilicity, and pH of the vehicle on partitioning behavior of model compounds were examined.
