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Predictive Methods in Percutaneous Absorption pp 1–24Cite as

Skin Structure and Physiology

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Abstract

This chapter describes the structure of the skin and its stratified nature, emphasising and focusing on the skin’s main barrier to permeation—the stratum corneum—and how its structure and its nature, compared to underlying layers, results in a substantial barrier to both the ingress of exogenous materials and the egress of materials such as water. Methods of transport across the skin barrier and underlying tissues are reviewed, including the relative contributions of the transappendageal, intercellular and intracellular pathways to the overall absorption process, and how recent understandings of the skin barrier are still shaping our knowledge of this barrier. Strategies to enhance absorption are discussed: this will consider, for example, classical formulation methods, the use of solvents to enhance absorption, chemical penetration enhancers, and physical methods of enhancement (including iontophoresis, sonophoresis and the use of prodrug strategies to enhance absorption). This is described in a manner appropriate for contextualisation to the wider themes of this book.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The School of Pharmacy, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire, UK

    Gary P. Moss

  2. College of Pharmacy, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Darren R. Gullick

  3. Medical Toxicology Centre Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Simon C. Wilkinson

Authors
  1. Gary P. Moss
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  2. Darren R. Gullick
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  3. Simon C. Wilkinson
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Correspondence to Gary P. Moss .

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Moss, G.P., Gullick, D.R., Wilkinson, S.C. (2015). Skin Structure and Physiology. In: Predictive Methods in Percutaneous Absorption. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47371-9_1

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