Biopartitioning micellar chromatography to predict skin permeability

Dermal absorption of chemicals is an area of increasing interest to the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, as well as in dermal exposure and risk assessment processes. In this paper the capability of biopartitioning micellar chromatography (BMC) as an in vitro technique to describe compound percutaneous absorption is evaluated. A multivariate study (principal component analysis, partial least squares) is performed in order to evaluate the importance of some physicochemical variables on the skin permeability constant values. From these results, a quantitative retention-activity relationship model for predicting the skin permeability constants that uses the BMC retention data and melting point as descriptor variables was obtained from a heterogeneous set of 43 compounds. The main advantage of the proposed methodology is that it allows the obtention of permeability constants of ionic compound and it can be very useful to predict the effect of pH of vehicle on the skin permeability of xenobiotics. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.