Abstract
Recently, an organotypic culture technique has been applied to develop three-dimentional skin tissues. This skin model can be used to predict the percutaneous absorption as well as the treatment of wounds and the safty and efficacy assesrnent of various skin care products. This paper has investigated the penetration and metabolism through a human skin model, Living Skin Equivalent (LSE), and discussed usefulness of this skin model for percutaneous absorption. The steady-state penetration rate of prednisolone (PN) through the LSE was 13.3 times higher than that through hairless mouse skin. On the other hand, a prednisolone prodrug, prednisolone 21-acetate(PNA), was metabolized to PN in the LSE in a similar manner in the human skin. Therefore, the culture-skin model may be used for the prediction of metabolic profiles in human skin.
