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Improving the Sensitivity of in Vitro Skin Penetration Experiments

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Abstract

The institution of a readily-implemented sample screening and data handling procedure for in vitro skin penetration studies yields substantial improvements in sensitivity for distinguishing between formulations, treatments, penetrants, etc. The procedure involves four steps: 1) prescreen the tissue samples to determine their intrinsic permeability; 2) apply treatments using a randomized complete block (RGB) design, with blocking by tissue permeability; 3) apply a variance-stabilizing transformation to the penetration data, followed by outlier testing; and 4) analyze the transformed data according to an RGB analysis of variance, using tissue permeability as the blocking variable. For penetration studies in which high sample variability is a concern, the above procedure commonly yields a sensitivity advantage of several-fold versus alternative methods of comparison.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Procter & Gamble Company, Miami Valley Laboratories, P.O. Box 538707, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45253-8707

    Gerald B. Kasting, Thomas G. Filloon, William R. Francis & Michael P. Meredith

Authors
  1. Gerald B. Kasting
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  2. Thomas G. Filloon
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  3. William R. Francis
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  4. Michael P. Meredith
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Kasting, G.B., Filloon, T.G., Francis, W.R. et al. Improving the Sensitivity of in Vitro Skin Penetration Experiments. Pharm Res 11, 1747–1754 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018915416930

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018915416930

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