The tape stripping method followed the standard approach described in the OECD 428 test guideline ( selleck compound Trebilcock et al., 1994), using 22 mm diameter Cuderm D-Squame stripping discs (CuDerm Corporation, Dallas, USA) which were applied to the dry skin surface at a constant pressure of 225 g/cm2 for five seconds using a purpose-built applicator. The three measures of skin barrier function (ER, TEWL

and TWF) were recorded before the tape stripping procedure. The three values were recorded again after removal of the specified number of tape strips of the stratum corneum and finally for a third time after 24 h following the tape stripping procedure. Initial and 24 h measurements were also performed for the unstripped control membranes. For comparative purposes, a separate group of pig skin samples were subdivided into an unstripped control group

and a group where the epidermis had been completely removed by heat-separation. The pre- and post-values for the three measures of skin integrity were recorded for the control and each tape stripping procedure and expressed as mean ± SEM for each group. A comparison of the three skin integrity measurements (ER, TEWL and TWF) was made between the unstripped control skin Y-27632 mw and the tape stripped skin using Students t-test for unpaired variates, as appropriate. ER was expressed as kΩ and was based on our Laboratory’s standard diffusion cell area (2.54 cm2). The multiple skin samples from five different animals were assigned to the three measurement groups in order to minimise any effects from different animals. Fig. 1A–F shows the three

skin integrity markers which were measured at both 0 h and 24 h and plotted against one another for at least five replicates from each animal. The individual skin samples in normal skin gave an ER distribution of the order of 1–23 kΩ, a TEWL distribution of 1–15 g/m2/h and a T2O (TWF) distribution of 0.2–6 × 10−3 cm/h. Measurements taken 24 h later, for Celastrol the same skin diffusion cells, were similar; ER distribution was 1–22 kΩ, a TEWL distribution of 1–11 g/m2/h and a T2O (TWF) distribution of 0.4–6 × 10−3 cm/h. For reference, the cut-off values from previously published data for pig skin from our laboratory have been added as intersect lines on Fig. 1A–F. These lines represent cut-offs deemed as normal skin integrity for this species (Davies et al., 2004), and include the majority of individual values measured in the present study. Table 1 shows the distribution of the values across each group that were used to plot Fig. 1A–F. The next stage of the investigation involved a direct comparison of normal pig skin with samples from the same animals that had been tape stripped 5, 10, 15 or 20 times to remove different amounts of the stratum corneum.