Dye diffusion from microcapsules with different shell thickness into mammalian skin.

Oil-in-water microcapsules with varying shell thicknesses were fabricated via a coacervation technique, whereby evaporation of volatile solvents induced the shell-forming polymer to precipitate, phase separate and migrate to the oil/water interface to form microcapsules. These microcapsules encapsulated a lipophilic dye within their cores and were applied topically onto porcine skin for 6h. Results indicated that the dye preferentially accumulated within the skin furrows and hair follicles, though the dye did not penetrate beyond the stratum corneum. A model estimates the diffusion coefficients of dye through the microcapsule shell and within the skin to be approximately 10(-18) and 10(-16)m(2)s(-1), respectively.