Ex vivo calcium percutaneous eggression in normal and tape-stripped human skin

Ions play a crucial role in skin homeostasis. Calcium, a participant in wound healing and keratinization, is localized at an increasing gradient from the stratum basal to the stratum granulosum. In vivo and in vitro studies show disturbances in this gradient in damaged skin. We developed here a model to study ex vivo calcium outward flux from normal and tape-stripped human skin. We measured here, with a calcium specific electrode, ex vivo calcium percutaneous eggression from dermis to epidermis in normal and tape-stripped skin places in franz cells, with a calcium source or not in the dermis compartment. Tape-stripped skin released a greater calcium concentration and had a higher rate over time than normal skin in both cases. The rate went from 8.1.10(-3) +/- 8.9.10(-3) nmol.cm(-2).min(-1) to 4.8.10(-2) +/- 1.8.10(-2) nmol.cm(-2).min(-1) with no calcium in the dermis compartment and from 1.7.10(-1) +/- 1.2.10(-1) nmol.cm(-2).min(-1) to 5.9 +/- 3.4 nmol.cm(-2).min(-1) with calcium. Also calcium uptake from the dermis is greater in tape-stripped skin during the first 5 h of the experiment. This ex vivo method reproduced the increased of calcium skin permeability with a disrupted barrier. This approach aims to develop a non-invasive method to measure calcium flux concentration in normal and damaged skin that might be reproduced and validated in vivo.