Table 1.

Skin model assessment methods and respective advantages and disadvantages

Test Type	Examples	Advantages	Disadvantages
In Vitro	In Vitro Permeation Testing (IVPT)	Relatively faster, moderately inexpensive, high throughput methods, good correlation with in vivo clinical studies	Still may not be an accurate representation of human skin performance, currently no approved protocols for IVPT studies
In Vivo	Dermatopharmacokinetic (DPK) Method, Microdialysis, Dermal Open-Flow Microperfusion (dOFM)	A moderately accurate means of determining skin performance	Relatively expensive, may be more time consuming, very operator dependent results, within subject variability adverse skin inflammation
Pharmaceutical & Toxicology	Parallel Artificial Membrane Permeation Assay (PAMPA), Micronuclei (MN) Assay, Corneometer based hydration studies	Informs decisions on future clinical testing, determines any harmful effects, relative reproducibility of results	Inflammatory responses differ from person to person, may not be an accurate in vivo representation
Characterization	Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Nanoindentation, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)	Standard characterization methods, provides details on surface properties	Depending on method and model developed, some tests may damage surface of model