Finasteride nano-transferosomal gel formula for management of androgenetic alopecia: ex vivo investigational approach

Figures & data

Figure 1 Chemical structure of finasteride.

Table 1 Composition, particle size, and EE% of FIN-NTF formulations

Formulation	F1	F2	F3
FIN	100 mg	100 mg	100 mg
Phospholipon 90G	405 mg	559 mg	710 mg
Span 65	25 mg	33 mg	41 mg
Characterization	F1	F2	F3
Particle size (nm)*	299.6 ± 45.6	171 ± 25.6	197.4 ± 29.1
EE (%)*	69.72 ± 8.36	89.43 ± 6.82	93.1 ± 1.93

Note:

* Results are presented as mean ± SD.

Abbreviations: FIN, fnasteride; EE, entrapment efficiency percent; NTF, nano-transferosomes.

Figure 2 TEM images of the prepared FIN-NTF vesicles (F3).

Abbreviations: FIN, finasteride; NTF, nano-transferosomes; TEM, transmission electron microscopy.

Figure 3 Ex vivo cumulative amount of FIN permeate from rat skin after application of FIN-NTF gel formula and raw FIN gel formula.

Abbreviations: FIN, finasteride; NTF, nano-transferosomes.

Table 2 Ex vivo permeation parameters for FIN-NTF gel formulations (F1–3) and raw FIN gel

Formulation	Dmax (μg) ± SD	Jss (μg/cm^2·h)	Pc (cm/h) × 10^−2	D (cm^2/h) × 10^−2
Raw FIN gel	13.95 ± 3.4	0.368	0.516	0.108
F1	66.03 ± 7.9	1.504	2.112	1.815
F2	48.98 ± 9.3	1.288	1.808	1.35
F3	41.81 ± 4.3	1.919	2.693	1.77

Abbreviations: FIN, finasteride; NTF, nano-transferosomes; D_max, maximum amount of drug permeated; J_ss, steady-state flux; Pc, permeability coefficient; D, diffusion coefficient.

Table 3 Kinetic analysis of permeation data for FIN -NTF gel formulations (F1–3) and raw FIN gel

Formulation	Correlation coefficient (r)
	Zero	First	Higuchi	Hixson–Crowell	Baker–Lonsdale
Raw FIN gel	0.93823	−0.94681	0.99422	0.95342	0.99419
F1	0.90984	−0.99616	0.98127	0.98254	0.99925
F2	0.94025	−0.9849	0.99266	0.97305	0.99635
F3	0.94062	−0.97375	0.99242	0.96401	0.99580

Abbreviations: FIN, finasteride; NTF, nano-transferosomes.

Figure 4 Fluorescence microscope images for rat skin layers following transdermal delivery of rhodamine florescence labeled NTF gel formula (F2) and raw (control) gel formula after 1 and 5 hours (magnification 400×).

Abbreviations: FIN, finasteride; NTF, nano-transferosomes.