Expression of drug transporters in the human skin: comparison in different species and models and its implication for drug development

It is clear that many drug transporters (both ABCs and SLCs) are present in the human skin. Different in vitro skin models can be used to investigate the role of drug transporters in the skin despite quantitative differences in expression profile across species. P-gp was shown to have an important influence on transdermal drug absorption in the skin and to function in “absorptive” transport, carrying substrate drugs from the skin surface to the dermis. This observation might be used to modulate drug distribution inside the skin. If drugs can be retained in the epidermis compartment by inhibition of the transporters, such property of the drug would be beneficial for treatment of dermatological diseases. Therefore, it might be feasible to control transdermal delivery of drugs to specific locations in the skin, by modulating the function of the transporters in the skin. We are at the dawn of an exciting period where drug transporters might be novel targets for improvement of drug delivery to the skin and for pharmacological intervention.