Disease characterization and skin as a metabolizing organ.

oral epigallocatechin gallate supplementation in hairless rats. Mitriaikina and Müller-Goymann (Skin Pharmacol Physiol 2009; 22: 142–150) report about the permeation of non-diluted and diluted betamethasone valerate in different formulations. They were able to show that the permeation rate can be differentiated in isolated human stratum corneum and artificial skin constructs. The differences in permeation depend on the type of the formulation and the water content of the formulation. Philips et al. (Skin Pharmacol Physiol 2009; 22: 151– 157) studied the differential effects of ceramides in preventing epidermal hyperplasia. Furthermore, they were able to show an extracellular matrix remodelling in keratinocytes and fibroblasts. Drakaki et al. (Skin Pharmacol Physiol 2009; 22: 158– 165) characterized and differentiated basal cell carcinoma from normal tissue by reflectance spectroscopy. The authors could demonstrate that laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy is capable of differentiating neoplastic from normal tissue. A German-Dutch collaboration, namely Coelho Palermo Cunha et al. (Skin Pharmacol Physiol 2009; 22: 166–176) showed an inhibition of photo-carcinogenesis by a topically applied ultraviolet B absorber in hairless albino rats.