Use of "bricks and mortar" model to predict transdermal permeation: Model development and initial validation

Presented in this paper is a general purpose computer model for predicting transdermal permeation of solutes in vivo. The "bricks and mortar" model is employed to represent the stratum corneum (SC), the main barrier to transdermal permeation. Transdermal permeation and absorption is modeled as a dynamic process of mass transfer in the heterogeneous stratum corneum including both the tortuous lipid pathway and the transcellular corneocytes pathway. The partition and diffusion properties of solutes in SC lipid matrix and corneocytes are calculated from the fundamental physical chemical properties of octanol-water partition coefficient, molecular size, and diffusion coefficients in water and lipid, using equations established elsewhere. To test the model, the in vivo tape striping data of 4-cyanophenol is simulated. Using the calculated partition and diffusion properties of 4-cyanophenol in SC lipids and corneocytes, the predicted dynamic profiles of 4-cyanophenol in the SC agreed very well with the experimental data. Results show that for a moderately hydrophobic solute like 4-cyanophenol, the transcellular pathway is also an important route of percutaneous absorption with about 2/3 of the absorbed 4-cyanophenol partitioned into the corneocytes.