A surrogate for topical delivery in human skin: silicone membranes.

We have identified, for any surrogate membrane and human skin in vitro, the maximum flux through the membrane (output) should be measured if a correlation between the two is to be obtained. We also identified from an analysis of the passive permeation process that molecular weight, lipid and aqueous solubilities (which are easily measured) constitute the physicochemical properties of the active (input), upon which prediction of flux through the surrogate membrane and through skin in vitro should be based. Besides providing the bases for predicting flux, changes in these physicochemical properties can be easily implemented by those wishing to optimize new cosmetics or topical products. Maximum flux values through silicone membrane (n = 70) and through human skin in vitro (n = 52) have been collected and a good correlation between the flux through human skin in vitro and flux through silicone membrane (for the same molecules) was found.