To develop proper drug formulations and to optimize the delivery of their active ingredients\nthrough the dermal barrier, the Franz diffusion cell system is the most widely used in vitro/ex vivo\ntechnique. However, different providers and manufacturers make various types of this equipment\n(horizontal, vertical, static, flow-through, smaller and larger chambers, etc.) with high variability and\nnot fully comparable and consistent data. Furthermore, a high amount of test drug formulations and\nlarge size of diffusion skin surface and membranes are important requirements for the application\nof these methods. The aim of our study was to develop a novel Microfluidic Diffusion Chamber\ndevice and compare it with the traditional techniques. Here the design, fabrication, and a pilot testing\nof a microfluidic skin-on-a chip device are described. Based on this chip, further developments\ncan also be implemented for industrial purposes to assist the characterization and optimization of\ndrug formulations, dermal pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamic studies. The advantages of\nour device, beside the low costs, are the small drug and skin consumption, low sample volumes,\ndynamic arrangement with continuous flow mimicking the dermal circulation, as well as rapid and\nreproducible results.
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