IN-VITRO MEASUREMENT OF TRANSEPIDERMAL WATER-LOSS - A RAPID ALTERNATIVE TO TRITIATED-WATER PERMEATION FOR ASSESSING SKILL BARRIER FUNCTIONS

Transepidermal water loss (TEWL), as measured with an evaporimeter, wa s used as a rapid assessment of the integrity of the barrier propertie s of skin as part of in vitro skin permeation studies. For a variety o f physical and chemical treatments (i.e. solvent extraction, surfactan ts, mechanical abrasion and bases) TEWL correlated strongly with triti ated water permeation at short times. In contrast to the tedious proce ss of measuring permeation of a finite dose of tritiated water, TEWL i s a rapid, convenient measurement, and it provides a clear indication of the time dependence of barrier integrity, (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.