Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Technology Author: Zuzana Jarešová Supervisor: PharmDr. Andrej Kováčik, Ph.D. Consultant: PharmDr. Lukáš Opálka, Ph.D. Title of diploma thesis: STUDY OF FREE SPHINGOID BASES IN SKIN BARRIER The skin barrier, localized in the stratum corneum (SC), consists of corneocytes and an intercellular matrix formed from three types of lipids - ceramides, free fatty acids, and cholesterol, represented in an equimolar ratio. The overall arrangement of lipids is organized and highly specialized. Ceramides are structurally formed from the fatty acid acyl attached to a sphingoid base. In minor but not insignificant amounts, free sphingoid bases can also be found in the skin barrier. Several studies show that there is an increased concentration of free sphingoid bases in skin barrier disorders, such as atopic dermatitis. Although it is assumed that the presence of free sphingoid bases affects the skin barrier, it is not elucidated the way of their participation till today. The lack of studies or their diverse results leads us to the main goal of this thesis - to clarify how free sphingoid bases influence the skin barrier. In this work, the model membranes were prepared by the isolation of human SC ex vivo. Sphingosine (S),...

Charles University Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmaceutical Technology Candidate: Matěj Šimek Consultant: doc. Dr. rer. nat. Mgr. Jarmila Zbytovská Title of thesis: In vitro models of skin barrier The aim of this work is to summarize information about various types of skin models which are used for testing of permeability, toxicity, irritability and other aspects of drugs, through professional, verified and reviewed literature. These characteristics are necessary to know in order to grant optimal safety, effectiveness nad quality of transdermally administered drugs. Transdermal administration of drugs has got lots of benefits in contrast with classic peroral administration. An administration of drugs through this way is quite simple and it can be interrupted quite easily. We can also easily change a place of administration in which a drug is released and the risk of overdosing is very low. Furthermore, transdermal administration makes possible to maintain constant plasmatic concentration of drug in a blood stream and also to prolong the duration of effect of drugs with small halftime thanks to constant releasing of drug. And primarily, transdermally administered drug normally avoids the "first-pass" effect of liver, so the dose of drug can be lowered. The risk of drug...

No / Transmembrane pore formation is central to many biological processes such as ion transport, cell fusion, and viral infection. Furthermore, pore formation in the ceramide bilayers of the stratum corneum may be an important mechanism by which penetration enhancers such as dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) weaken the barrier function of the skin. We have used the potential of mean constraint force (PMCF) method to calculate the free energy of pore formation in ceramide bilayers in both the innate gel phase and in the DMSO-induced fluidized state. Our simulations show that the fluid phase bilayers form archetypal water-filled hydrophilic pores similar to those observed in phospholipid bilayers. In contrast, the rigid gel-phase bilayers develop hydrophobic pores. At the relatively small pore diameters studied here, the hydrophobic pores are empty rather than filled with bulk water, suggesting that they do not compromise the barrier function of ceramide membranes. A phenomenological analysis suggests that these vapor pores are stable, below a critical radius, because the penalty of creating water-vapor and tail-vapor interfaces is lower than that of directly exposing the strongly hydrophobic tails to water. The PMCF free energy profile of the vapor pore supports this analysis. The simulations indicate that high DMSO concentrations drastically impair the barrier function of the skin by strongly reducing the free energy required for pore opening. / EPSRC

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京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第23940号 / 農博第2489号 / 新制||農||1090(附属図書館) / 学位論文||R4||N5375(農学部図書室) / 京都大学大学院農学研究科応用生物科学専攻 / (主査)教授 菅原 達也, 教授 佐藤 健司, 教授 松井 徹 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Agricultural Science / Kyoto University / DGAM

Moisturizers are used in various types of dry skin disorders, but also by people with healthy skin. It is not unusual that use of moisturizers is continued for weeks, months, or even years. A number of moisturizers have been shown to improve the skin barrier function, while others to deteriorate it, but the reason for observed effects remains unknown. Further understanding of the mechanism by which long-term treatment with moisturizers influences the skin barrier would have clinical implications, as barrier-deteriorating creams may enhance penetration of allergens or irritants and predispose to dry skin and eczema, while barrier-improving ones could reduce many problems. The present research combined non-invasive techniques with analyses of skin biopsies, allowing studies of the epidermis at molecular and cellular level. Test moisturizers were examined on healthy human volunteers for their effect on the skin barrier, with regard to such factors as pH, lipid type, and presence of a humectant, as well as complexity of the product. After a 7-week treatment with the moisturizers, changes in transepidermal water loss, skin capacitance, and susceptibility to an irritant indicated a modified skin barrier function. Moreover, the mRNA expression of several genes involved in the assembly, differentiation and desquamation of the stratum corneum, as well as lipid metabolism, was altered in the skin treated with one of the moisturizers, while the other moisturizer induced fewer changes. In conclusion, long-term use of moisturizers may strengthen the barrier function of the skin, but also deteriorate it and induce skin dryness. Moisturizers have also a significant impact on the skin biochemistry, detectable at molecular level. Since the type of influence is determined by the composition of a moisturizer, more careful selection of ingredients could help to design moisturizers generating a desired clinical effect, and to avoid ingredients with a negative impact on the skin.

Atopic dermatitis (AD), ichthyosis vulgaris (IV), and X-linked recessive ichthyosis (XLRI) are characterized by dry skin and impaired skin barrier. AD and IV are related to loss-of-function mutations in FLG (encoding filaggrin), whereas XLRI is caused by deletions or inactivating mutations in the steroid sulphatase gene (STS). Patients regularly use moisturizing creams, but little is known about the creams’ effects on the skin barrier. The present work combines objective scorings, non-invasive techniques, and molecular analyses of skin biopsies to characterize the skin in 57 patients with AD, IV, or XLRI, and in 14 healthy controls. Patients were classified according to their FLG and STS mutation status: AD with FLG+/+ (n = 14), AD with FLG+/– (n = 14), AD/IV with FLG–/– (n = 15), and XLRI with STS– (n = 14), as well as one man with a novel point mutation. Assessments were conducted at baseline and after four weeks of treatment with three different moisturizers applied to volar forearm skin. At baseline, dryness scoring and non-invasive assessments verified impaired skin barrier function in all patients. In patients with AD/IV, microarray analysis identified 300–3000 up- or downregulated mRNA transcripts involved in signalling pathways important for inflammation and barrier repair. The skin phenotype and number of altered transcripts were correlated with the FLG mutation status, with FLG–/– patients displaying the highest transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and the most altered transcript levels. In contrast, despite an equally dysfunctional skin barrier, only limited changes in mRNA transcripts occurred in XLRI patients. Treatment with moisturizers improved skin dryness similarly in all groups, but TEWL behaved differently: it decreased slightly in the AD/IV group and increased in the XLRI group, especially after urea treatment. Only minute effects on skin pH and mRNA expression were observed. In conclusion, FLG mutations elicit pro-inflammatory mechanisms probably aimed at restoring barrier competence. This does not occur in patients with XLRI, presumably because STS deficiency automatically increases the barrier thickness. Moisturizing treatment improves skin dryness in patients with AD, IV, or XLRI, but does not seem to normalize the altered epidermal gene expression profile in AD/IV patients.

Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Biophysics and Physical Chemistry Author: Lucia Dulanská Supervisor: Mgr. Petra Pullmannová, Ph.D Title of thesis: Optimization of the skin barrier model with isolated ceramides of human Stratum corneum Stratum corneum (SC), the uppermost layer of the skin, regulates transcutaneous water loss and protects against outer conditions and harmful substances. It consists of cornified cells - corneocytes and extracellular lipid matrix, which is responsible for the barrier functions. Corneocytes are covered with covalently bound lipids creating the corneocyte lipid envelope (CLE). CLE is considered to interconnect the extracellular lipids with corneocytes and to have a templating effect. We aimed to optimize a skin lipid model simulating also the presence of CLE. The lipidic part of the model was prepared from an equimolar mixture of isolated human skin ceramides (hCer), cholesterol and free fatty acids (FFA, either protonated or deuterated) with 5 weight % of cholesteryl sulfate. hCer were extracted from the isolated human SC and purified by the column chromatography. The composition of hCer was determined by the high- performance thin-layer chromatography. The reverse-phase and normal phase silica gel particles served as the CLE...