Enhancing effect of alpha-hydroxyacids on "in vitro" permeation across the human skin of compounds with different lipophilicity.

The percutaneous penetration-enhancing effects of glycolic acid, lactic acid and sodium lauryl sulphate through the human epidermis was investigated using 5-fluorouracil as a hydrophilic model permeant and three compounds belonging to the phenylalcohols: 2-phenyl-ethanol, 4-phenyl-butanol and 5-phenyl-pentanol. The lipophilicity values of the compounds ranged from log Poct -0.95 to 2.89. The effect of the enhancer concentration was also studied. Skin pretreatment with aqueous solutions of the three enhancers did not increase the permeability coefficient of the most lipophilic compound (log Poct = 2.89). For the other compounds assayed, the increase in the permeability coefficients depended …