Optimization of chitosan membranes as a substitute of human epidermis for transdermal patches development

LUCIANO N. MENGATTO, JULIO A. LUNA AND MARÍA INÉS CABRERA

Mar del Plata

Taller; 2º Taller de Órganos Artificiales, Biomateriales e Ingeniería de Tejidos; 2011

Soc. Argentina de Bioingeniería - Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata

Polymeric membranes with skin-imitating permeability properties appear as attractive models in the evaluation of transdermal drug delivery systems. Chitosan and its derivatives have been widely explored for pharmaceutical and medical applications. The aim of the current work was to prepare a chitosan membrane to mimic human epidermis and evaluate its applicability for the development of a chitosan patch for estradiol delivery. Response surface methodology was implemented for the preparation of the optimized chitosan membrane to mimic human epidermis. All release studies were performed according to the USP Apparatus 5 paddle over disk method. Optimization procedure allowed preparing the optimized chitosan membrane; that is, a membrane which reproduced the cumulative amount of estradiol released per unit time of human epidermis. Optimized membrane was applied to the development of a chitosan patch for estradiol delivery. The release profile of the chitosan patch alone and chitosan patch plus the skin-mimetic membrane were similar to those obtained for commercial patch alone and commercial patch plus the skin-mimetic membrane. The results presented show a successful application of the in vitro technology proposed with chitosan mimetic membranes for transdermal patch development.