The human stratum corneum prevents small gold nanoparticle penetration and their potential toxic metabolic consequences

Abstract

Nanoparticles are being used in multiple applications, ranging from biomedical and skin care products (e.g., sunscreen) through to industrial manufacturing processes (e.g., water purification). The increase in exposure has led to multiple reports on nanoparticle penetration and toxicity. However, the correlation between nanoparticle size and its penetration without physical/chemical enhancers through the skin is poorly understood-with studies instead focusing primarily on skin penetration under disrupted conditions. In this paper, we investigate the penetration and metabolic effects of 10nm, 30nm, and 60nm gold nanoparticles within viable excised human skin after 24-hour exposure using multiphoton tomograph-fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. After 24 hour treatment with the 10, 30, and 60nm gold nanoparticles, there was no significant penetration detected below the stratum corneum. Furthermore, there were no changes in metabolic output (total NAD(P)H) in the viable epidermis posttreatment correlating with lack of penetration of nanoparticles. These results are significant for estimating topical nanoparticle exposure in humans where other model systems may overestimate the exposure of nanoparticles to the viable epidermis. Our data shows that viable human skin resists permeation of small nanoparticles in a size range that has been reported to penetrate deeply in other skin models. Copyright © 2012 David C. Liu et al.