BME Seminar Series: Supriya Ravichandran

A Quantitative Study of Effect of Skin Barrier Defects on Nanoparticle Penetration Using an Ex-vivo Human Skin Model

Abstract

There has been an increasing presence of nanoparticles in our day-to-day consumer products like sunscreens, which can pose risks when exposed to the skin. Research has shown that when skin barrier is compromised, nanoparticles are able to make their way through the stratum corneum barrier and into the epidermis. Here they can interact with skin cells (keratinocytes) possibly causing changes in their function. Our research focuses on quantum dot nanoparticle (QD) penetration in intact and barrier compromised ex-vivo human. We induce barrier defects with Nair (which interrupts keratin disulfide bonds) and tape stripping (which removes layers of the stratum corneum) and quantify their impact on skin barrier status using a Ussing chamber system. We are able to then correlate the barrier disruption to increased QD permeation using the Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) technique and histology.