In recent decades, zebrafish (Danio rerio) has become a widely used vertebrate animal model for studying development and human diseases. However, studies on skin medication using zebrafish are rare. Here, we developed a novel protocol for percutaneous absorption of molecules via the zebrafish tail skin, by applying a liquid solution directly, or using a filter paper imbibed with a chemical solution (coating). Human skin is capable of absorbing felbinac and loxoprofen sodium hydrate (LSH), but not glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) and terbinafine hydrochloride (TH). To evaluate the possibility and the quality of transdermal absorption in zebrafish, we transdermally administered these four drugs to zebrafish. Pharmacokinetics showed that felbinac was present in the blood of zebrafish subjected to all administration methods. Felbinac blood concentrations peaked at 2 h and disappeared 7 h after administration. GA was not detected following transdermal administrations, but was following exposure. LSH was not found in the circulatory system after transdermal administration, but TH was. A dose-response correlation was observed for felbinac blood concentration. These findings suggest that zebrafish are capable of absorbing drug molecules through their skin. However, the present data cannot demonstrate that zebrafish is a practical model to predict human skin absorption. Further systemic studies are needed to observe the correlations in percutaneous absorption between humans and zebrafish.
Keywords: drug screening; felbinac; glycyrrhetinic acid; pharmacokinetics; zebrafish.