Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Irritant Effects of Pharmaceutically Applied Surfactants

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Surfactants and Detergents

Abstract

Dermal or transdermal medication may lead to irritant contact dermatitis. However, little information is available on the irritant effect of surfactants which are applied in topical formulations. Our aim was to examine the irritant effect of the most frequent compounds in topical products. A murine model was applied. The following compounds were examined: sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), polyethoxylated (40EO) hydrogenated castor oil and sucrose laurate. SLS led to severe erythema, increase in transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and induced necrosis and accumulation of neutrophylic granulocytes and lymphocytes. Exposure to sucrose laurate resulted in an elevation of TEWL, but histology did not reveal impairment of the skin structure. Application of polyethoxylated (40EO) hydrogenated castor oil was not accompanied by tissue damage. Special attention should be paid to the irritant effect of SLS. Polyethoxylated (40EO) hydrogenated castor oil seems to be a non-irritant agent and sucrose laurate is also a promising candidate for application in topical preparations.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Schaefer H, Redelmeier TE (1996) Skin barrier: principles of percutaneous absorption. Karger, Basel

    Google Scholar 

  2. Kanikkannan N, Singh M (2002) Skin permeation enhancement effect and skin irritation of saturated fatty alcohols. Int J Pharm 248(1–2):219–228

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hanifin JM (2009) Evolving concepts of pathogenesis in atopic dermatitis and other eczemas. J Invest Dermatol 129:320–322

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Anderson FA (2011) Annual review of cosmetic ingredient safety assessments 2007–2010. Int J Toxicol 5Suppl 30:73S–127S

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Ale I, Lachapelle JM, Maibach HI (2009) Skin tolerability associated with transdermal drug delivery systems: an overview. Adv Ther 26:920–935

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Kano S, Sugibayashi K (2006) Kinetic analysis on the skin disposition of cytotoxicity as an index of skin irritation produced by cetylpyridinium chloride: comparison of in vitro data using a three-dimensional cultured human skin model with in vivo results in hairless mice. Pharm Res 23:329–335

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Arndt KA, Hsu JTS (2006) Manual of dermatologic therapeutics, 7th edn. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  8. Mittal A, Sara UV, Ali A, Aqil M (2008) The effect of penetration enhancers on permeation kinetics of nitrendipine in two different skin models. Biol Pharm Bull 31:1766–1772

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Nair A, Vyas H, Shah J, Kumar A (2011) Effect of permeation enhancers on the iontophoretic transport of metoprolol tartrate and the drug retention in skin. Drug Deliv 18:19–25

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Lee CH, Maibach HI (1995) The sodium lauryl sulphate model: an overview. Contact Dermatitis 33:1–7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Agner T, Serup J (1990) Sodium lauryl sulphate for irritant patch testing—a dose-response study using bioengineering methods for determination of skin irritation. J Invest Dermatol 95:543–547

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Lee EJ, Rothwell JT (2010) Histological changes to the skin of Merino sheep following deep dermal and subcutaneous injections of sodium lauryl sulphate. Aust Vet J 88:146–150

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Feher A, Csanyi E, Csoka I, Kovacs A, Eros I (2005) Thermoanalytical investigation of lyotropic liquid crystals and microemulsions for pharmaceutical use. J Therm Anal Calorim 82:507–512

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Horvat S, Feher A, Wolburg H, Sipos P, Veszelka S, Toth A, Kis L, Kurunczi A, Balogh G, Kurti L, Eros I, Szabo-Revesz P, Deli MA (2009) Sodium hyaluronate as a mucoadhesive component in nasal formulation enhances delivery of molecules to brain tissue. Eur J Pharm Biopharm 72:252–259

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Csoka G, Marton S, Zelko R, Otomo N, Antal I (2007) Application of sucrose fatty acid esters in transdermal therapeutic systems. Eur J Pharm Biopharm 65:233–237

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Lehmann L, Keipert S, Gloor M (2001) Effects of microemulsions on the stratum corneum and hydrocortisone penetration. Eur J Pharm Biopharm 52:129–136

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Csizmazia E, Eros G, Berkesi O, Szabo-Revesz P, Csanyi E (2012) Ibuprofen penetration enhance by sucrose ester examined by ATR-FTIR in vivo. Pharm Dev Technol 17:125–128

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors deeply thank Éva Sztanyik for her excellent assistance. The study was supported by TÁMOP-4.2.1/B-09/1/KONV-2010-000 and TÁMOP-4.2.1/B-09/1/KONV-2010-0005, further by NKTH-A*STAR Hungarian—Singaporean Bilateral S&T International Cooperation (BIOSPONA).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Dermatology and Allergology, University of Szeged, Korányi Fasor 6, 6720, Szeged, Hungary

    Gábor Erős, Zsuzsanna Kurgyis, István Balázs Németh & Lajos Kemény

  2. Department of Oral Biology and Experimental Dental Research, University of Szeged, Tisza Lajos körút 64, 6720, Szeged, Hungary

    Gábor Erős

  3. Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Szeged, Eötvös utca 6, 6720, Szeged, Hungary

    Eszter Csizmazia, Szilvia Berkó, Piroska Szabó-Révész & Erzsébet Csányi

Authors
  1. Gábor Erős
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zsuzsanna Kurgyis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. István Balázs Németh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Eszter Csizmazia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Szilvia Berkó
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Piroska Szabó-Révész
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Lajos Kemény
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Erzsébet Csányi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gábor Erős.

About this article

Cite this article

Erős, G., Kurgyis, Z., Németh, I.B. et al. The Irritant Effects of Pharmaceutically Applied Surfactants. J Surfact Deterg 17, 67–70 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-013-1444-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-013-1444-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation