APPLICATION OF SUCROSE LAURATE IN TOPICAL PREPARATIONS OF CYCLOSPORINE-A

The skin irritating potential of sucrose laurate was studied in the no rmal guinea pig model. The results showed that sucrose laurate exhibit ed no skin irritating effect at all. The application of sucrose laurat e as an excipient in hydrophilic dermal preparations was investigated, by measuring the inhibition of contact sensitivity skin reactions to dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB), after topical application of a cyclospori n A hydrogel. The findings showed that the sucrose laurate hydrogel fo rmulation was somewhat less effective as compared to a sucrose laurate or ethanolic solution, but still superior to a reference paraffin sus pension. The sucrose laurate/cyclosporin A hydrogel significantly redu ced the skinfold thickness after 24, 32, 48 and 56 h of sensitization (p < 0.01-0.001). Skin permeability experiments indicated that the suc rose laurate has some intermediate skin permeability enhancing propert ies. Conclusively, these findings showed that sucrose laurate is a sui table, non irritating excipient for the dermal formulation of the poor ly water soluble cyclosporin A. In order to obtain an optimal sucrose laurate (trans)dermal hydrogel formulation, however, the effect of sur factant or cyclosporin A concentration and the presence or absence of occlusion must be subjected to further investigation.