IMPROVED METHOD FOR STUDYING SKIN LIPID SAMPLES FROM CYANOACRYLATE STRIPS BY HIGH-PERFORMANCE THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY

A non-invasive method for sampling skin surface lipids is cyanoacrylat e stripping (CAC-TS). It was the purpose of our study to improve the m ethod for sampling of skin surface lipids and the separation of epider mal lipid fractions by a modification of the methods described by Meln ik and by Imokawa et al. Briefly, lipids on the glass slide sampled by CAC-TS from the forearm of 75 volunteers and from the forehead of 60 volunteers were eluted in hexane/ethanol under ultrasonication. Identi fication of the diluted total superficial sebaceous and epidermal skin lipids was performed by sequential high-performance thin-layer chroma tography. For quantification of the lipids we used densitometric metho ds. By this modified method we were able to show a clear and complete separation of all relevant lipids from a cyanoacrylate strip that repr esented 1-2 mg stratum corneum only.