Effect of energy of square-wave pulse on transdermal delivery of tetracaine

Transdermal drug delivery (TDD) by electroporation is an attractive novel method of facilitating the transport of compounds across skin in which a short electrical pulse is applied to the skin, forcing the creation of a reversible transient aqueous pore to enhance the drug´s transdermal permeability. Most prior researches are difficult to put into the practical use, such as stimulation for user and designing electroporative apparatus for TDD, due to a pulse with high intensity. In this paper, the effect of electroporative energy on the permeable fluxes of tetracaine (TC) to pass through the skin is studied to explore a way of using an electroporative technique with low voltage. We applied a 130 V square pulse to SD male rat´s skin on the abdomen; the permeable flux of TC increased 5.1 times more than the passive transport.