Understanding skin drug diffusion under in use conditions is a prerequisite to building accurate and predictive mathematical models. Non-invasive microscopic techniques, combined with use of an epidermal model that retains viability without destroying and disrupting the biological, metabolic, chemical and enzymatic properties of the skin can enable in vitro characterisation of molecular diffusion without the need for in vivo experiments. We studied drug diffusion in the presence and absence of transport inhibitors, to highlight the significance of the right in vitro models, while making key observations of diffusion kinetics and cellular transport.
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