Charged microbeads are not transported across the human stratum corneum in vitro by short high-voltage pulses

There have been several reports of particle transport due to high-voltage pulsing of human skin. Here, several different short, high-voltage pulsing protocols were used in vitro to study the possible transport of highly charged, fluorescent polystyrene particles (14 nm to 2.1 μm in diameter; surface charges of −4.05×10³ e to −2.77×10⁷ e) across the skin. Two different methods were used to trap and measure particles on the other side of the skin. The first used a polycarbonate membrane to trap the particles, determining the amount of transport by enumeration under a fluorescence microscope. The second used spectrofluorimetry to measure the amount of particles transported. After pulsing, particles were found in randomly distributed clusters on the surface of the skin. No detectable transport across the stratum corneum for any size particle was observed.