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Twenty Clinically Pertinent Factors/Observations for Percutaneous Absorption in Humans

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Dermal Absorption and Decontamination

Abstract

At least 20 clinically relevant factors affect percutaneous absorption of drugs and chemicals: relevant physicochemical properties, vehicle/formulation, drug exposure conditions (dose, duration, surface area, exposure frequency), skin appendages (hair follicles, glands) as sub-anatomical pathways, skin application sites (regional variation in penetration), population variability (premature, infants, and aged), skin surface conditions (hydration, temperature, pH), skin health and integrity (trauma, skin diseases), substantivity and binding to different skin components, systemic distribution and systemic toxicity, stratum corneum exfoliation, washing-off and washing-in, rubbing/massaging, transfer to others (human to human and hard surface to human), volatility, metabolic biotransformation/cutaneous metabolism, photochemical transformation and photosensitivity, excretion kinetics, lateral spread, and chemical method of determining percutaneous absorption.

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Acknowledgements

There are no conflicts of interest from any of the authors, and there are no sources of funding for this manuscript.

Author Contributions

R. Law had the idea to provide a practical and clinically relevant version of M. Ngo and H. Maibach’s pivotal 15 steps of percutaneous absorption paper—for practitioners—and in the process expanded to 20 factors with contribution from H. Maibach; R. Law performed the literature search—with additional sources from H. Maibach’s vast experience; R. Law drafted the work; R. Law and H. Maibach critically revised the work at several time points, and M. Ngo critically revised the work twice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada

    Rebecca M. Law

  2. California Department of Toxic Substances Control, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Mai A. Ngo

  3. Department of Dermatology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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  1. Rebecca M. Law
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  2. Mai A. Ngo
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  3. Howard I. Maibach
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Correspondence to Rebecca M. Law .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada

    Aileen M. Feschuk

  2. School of Pharmacy, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada

    Rebecca M. Law

  3. Department of Dermatology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Howard I. Maibach

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Law, R.M., Ngo, M.A., Maibach, H.I. (2022). Twenty Clinically Pertinent Factors/Observations for Percutaneous Absorption in Humans. In: Feschuk, A.M., Law, R.M., Maibach, H.I. (eds) Dermal Absorption and Decontamination. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09222-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09222-0_12

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