PERMEATION OF 17-BETA-ESTRADIOL THROUGH HUMAN VAGINAL AND BUCCAL MUCOSA

Because of the relative scarcity of fresh human oral mucosa specimens for permeability studies, we investigated the use of human vaginal muc osa as a model of the former. In a previous study we demonstrated the comparable diffusion rate of water across human vaginal and buccal muc osa and proposed the use of the former as a suitable model of the latt er for in vitro drug permeability studies. To further evaluate the hum an vaginal/buccal mucosa model, we decided to compare these two tissue s with respect to their permeability to 17 beta-estradiol. Clinically healthy human vaginal and buccal mucosa specimens were obtained during vaginal hysterectomies and different oral surgical procedures. The pe rmeability of each tissue specimen to 17 beta-estradiol was determined through the use of a continuous flow-through diffusion system. Specim ens were examined histologically before and after experiments. Mean fl ux values for 17 beta-estradiol across human buccal mucosa tended to b e slightly higher than those observed for vaginal tissue, but no stati stically significant differences could be demonstrated. The results fr om this study further support our hypothesis that human vaginal mucosa may be a suitable model of human buccal mucosa for in vitro drug perm eability studies.