Suitability of skin integrity tests for dermal absorption studies in vitro

Abstract Skin absorption testing in vitro is a regulatory accepted alternative method (OECD Guideline 428). Different tests can be applied to evaluate the integrity of the skin samples. Here, we compared the pre- or post-run integrity tests (transepidermal electrical resistance, TEER; transepidermal water loss, TEWL; absorption of the reference compounds water, TWF, or methylene blue, BLUE) and additionally focused on co-absorption of a 3 H-labeled internal reference standard (ISTD) as integrity parameter. The results were correlated to absorption profiles of various test compounds. Limit values of 2 kΩ, 10 g m −2  h −1 and 4.5 ∗ 10 −3  cm h −1 for the standard methods TEER, TEWL and TWF, respectively, allowed distinguishing between impaired and intact human skin samples in general. Single skin samples did, however, not, poorly and even inversely correlate with the test-compound absorption. In contrast, results with ISTD (e.g. 3 H-testosterone) were highly correlated to the absorption of 14 C-labeled test compounds. Importantly, ISTD did not influence analytics or absorption of test compounds. Therefore, ISTD, especially when adjusted to the physico-chemical properties of test compounds, is a promising concept to assess the integrity of skin samples during the whole course of absorption experiments. However, a historical control dataset is yet necessary for a potential routine application.