Influence of molecular dipoles on human skin permeability: Use of 6-ketocholestanol to enhance the transdermal delivery of bacitracin

In the present work, we report the possibility of modifying the electrostatic properties of the skin by treating human epidermis with compounds whose structures possess a large molecular dipole moment. Data are presented showing that such a modification can be used to enhance dermal drug delivery. Inclusion of such compounds in biological membranes affects the so-called membrane dipole potential, an electrical potential originating from molecular dipoles present on the lipid molecules. Modifications in the magnitude of this potential are known to affect the interaction of hydrophobic ions and peptides with model membranes. Using fluorescein-labeled bacitracin and confocal microscopy, we show that the penetration of the antibiotic peptide bacitracin into the epidermis is enhanced when the skin has been pretreated with liposomes loaded with 30 mol % 6-ketocholestanol, a compound known to increase the magnitude of the membrane dipole potential. Studies using the fluorescent indicators fluoreseeinphosphatidylethanolamine and 1-(3-sulfonatopropyl)-4-[beta [2-(di-n-octylamino)-6-naphthyl] vinyl] pyridinium betaine show that the interaction of bacitracin with model membranes is also enhanced by the presence of 6-ketocholestanol in the bilayer and offers some indication to the mechanism of penetration enhancement. (C) 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. and the American Pharmaceutical Association.