Stratum corneum lipid matrix with unusual packing: a molecular dynamics study

Abstract

The skin is an effective barrier against the external elements being the stratum corneum, with its lipid matrix surrounding the corneocytes, considered the major player responsible for its low permeability. The use of computational models to study the transdermal delivery of compounds have a huge potential to improve this research area, but requires reliable models of the skin components. In this work, we developed molecular dynamics models with a coarse-grained resolution, of the stratum corneum lipid matrix and the sebum. We developed the lipid matrix model with unusual lipid packing configuration as some recent works support. The simulation results show that this configuration is stable and may help to explain the low permeability of stratum corneum. The sebum simulations showed that this oily skin product can also play a significant role in the transdermal delivery of drugs.