Lyotropic liquid crystals and the structural lipids of the stratum corneum.

Lipids were extracted from human stratum corneum and the remaining corneocytes were reaggregated with different lyotropic liquid crystals. Water transport through the reaggregated stratum corneum was determined using a diffusion chamber according to Smith and Blank. The permeability constant for the reaggregated stratum corneum with natural lipids was 25-40% lower than that with the surfactant liquid crystals, but there was no significant difference between different liquid crystals.