Fit of fluxes of sunscreens and other compounds from propylene glycol:water (30:70) through human skin and silicone membrane to the Roberts–Sloan equation: The effect of polar vehicle (or water) solubility

It would be useful to develop a surrogate for animal skin, which could be use to predict flux through human skin. The fluxes (and physicochemical properties) of sunscreens and other compounds from propylene glycol (PG):water (AQ), 30:70, through human skin have previously been reported. We measured the fluxes of several of those sunscreens and other compounds from PG:AQ, 30:70, through silicone membrane and fit both sets of data to the Roberts–Sloan (RS) equation to determine any similarities. For both sets of data, the fluxes were directly dependent on their solubilities in a lipid solvent [octanol (OCT), in this case] and in a polar solvent (PG:AQ, 30:70, or AQ in this case) and inversely on their molecular weights. The fit of the experimental (EXP) fluxes through human skin in vivo to RS was excellent: r² = 0.92 if the vehicle (VEH) PG:AQ, 30:70 was the polar solvent (RS¹) or r² = 0.97 if water was the polar solvent (RS²). The fit of the EXP fluxes through silicone membrane to RS was good: r² = 0.80 if the VEH PG:AQ, 30:70, was the polar solvent (RS¹) or r² = 0.81 if water was the polar solvent (RS²). The correlations between their EXP fluxes through human skin in vivo and their EXP fluxes through silicone membrane were good (r² = 0.85). In addition, the correlation between EXP fluxes from PG:AQ, 30:70, through human skin in vivo and their fluxes calculated from the coefficients of the fit of solubilities, molecular weights and fluxes from water through silicone membranes from a previous n = 22 database to RS was even better (r² = 0.94). These results suggest that flux through human skin can be calculated from flux through a silicone membrane.