Skin barrier factors affecting functioning

Monteiro-Riviere, N. A., Inman, A. O., and Riviere, J. E. Development and characterization of a novel skin model for cutaneous phototoxicology. 10, 235-243,1994. Monteiro-Riviere, N. A. Anatomical factors affecting barrier function. In Marzulli, F. N., and Maibach, H. I. (Eds.). Dermatotoxicology, Taylor Francis, Washington, D.C., 1996, Chapter 1, pp. 3-17. 

An understanding of the percutaneous absorption is essential when evaluating the potential of a chemical to cause skin disorders or systemic toxicity. This section provides a brief description of the barrier function of the skin and considers the factors affecting percutaneous absorption. Although this section only discusses the barrier function of the skin, it must be remembered that a chemical coming into contact with skin can also evaporate from the skin surface, bind to stratum corneum or become metabolised. 

Stratum corneum, the outermost layer of mammalian epidermis, functions physiologically as the principal diflFusion barrier to molecules penetrating the skin and as a protective physical barrier to mechanical insults at the skin surface. Data suggest that these functions are critically dependent on the specific morphological and macromolecular organization of the membrane mosaic (16, 17, 18, 19, 20). Thus, alterations of biophysical properties arise from environmental factors acting directly on the membrane or upon the keratinization process, and they affect... 

To build on this work showing the concurrent effects of various irritants on skin, other exogenous factors were studied as well. Thermal stimuli can affect the skin s barrier function. Researchers found that when human skin was pretreated with SLS for 48 h under patching and then exposed to a thermal stimulus on the test sites, skin blood flow measures increased more quickly and sharply in those pretreated to higher concentrations of SLS. This indicated that stimulated blood flow measures may be a good model to evaluate nonchemical inducted irritation, such as by climatic factors [59]. 

---