Diffusion of water across human skin in the presence of two barrier creams.

The in vitro permeability of tritiated water through fresh and frozen human skin was evaluated in the presence and absence of two different barrier creams. Treated (10 min) and untreated fresh and frozen human skin disks (4 mm in diameter) were mounted in flow cells of a continuous flow-through diffusion apparatus. Buffer/tritiated water was collected from the acceptor chambers at 2-hour intervals for a total of 20 h and counted in a liquid scintillation counter. The results indicated that both barrier creams lowered the average flux rates of tritiated water through fresh and frozen skin, but no significant differences could be detected between the two preparations. However, different results may be obtained when compounds with molecular weights much higher than water are used.