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.