A cellulose ester film as an inert vehicle for skin pharmacological studies.

A variety of chemical stimuli, including tetrahydrofurfuryl nicotinate (Plummer et al, 19771 and anthralin (Barrel a!., 1982) are known to increase the levels of arachidonic acid and various prostanoids recovered from the fluid of suction blisters raised on human and animal skin. Recently we have demonstrated that the skin of mini-pigs behaves qualitatively and quantitatively, in a pharmacological manner similar to human skin with respect to the above two stimuli (Chatelus et al., 1982) However, the present studies with these two drugs suggest that the selection of the vehicle in which the drug is applied to the skin is of paramount importance since, as will be presented below, significant pharmacological effects of the vehicles can he detected on the levels of various prostanoids measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]