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Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the transdermal delivery of two meloxicam salts, meloxicam sodium and meloxicam potassium, enhanced by iontophoresis and/or electroporation in vitro with Wistar rat dorsal skin and human epidermal membrane (HEM) as barriers and in vivo with Wistar rat as the animal model. Iontophoresis and its combination with electroporation could significantly enhance the in vitro permeation of both salts, and two protocols had the same enhancement to each salt. Furthermore, the combination protocol had more enhancement to potassium salt than sodium salt. Interspecies difference was found in some electrical protocols. Electroporation might depress the transdermal delivery of meloxicam sodium while it might enhance that of meloxicam potassium. Iontophoresis, electroporation and their combination could increase the delivery of the two salts and result in significantly higher AUC of drug concentration to time in vivo. It was concluded that the in vitro and in vivo transdermal delivery of meloxicam potassium was more facilitated by the combination protocol than meloxicam sodium.

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