Skin-identical lipids versus petrolatum in the treatment of tape-stripped and detergent-perturbed human skin.

The cutaneous permeability barrier is localized to the stratum corneum interstices and is mediated by lamellar bilayers enriched in cholesterol, free fatty acids and ceramides. Topically applied lipids may interfere with the skin barrier function and formulations containing "skin-identical lipids" have been suggested to facilitate normalization of damaged skin. The aim of the present study was to compare the ability of "skin-identical lipids" in a petrolatum-rich cream base and pure petrolatum to facilitate barrier repair in detergent- and tape-stripped-perturbed human skin. Barrier recovery and inflammation were instrumentally monitored for 14 days as transepidermal water loss and skin blood flow, using an Evaporimeter and a laser Doppler flowmeter, respectively. Treatment with the 2 different products gave no indication that "skin-identical lipids" in a cream base are more efficient than pure petrolatum at promoting normalization in either of the 2 experimentally perturbed areas. This finding may support the hypothesis that different types of skin abnormality should be treated according to the underlying damage.