The Effects of Cyclodextrins on Hydrocortisone Permeability Through Semi-Permeable Membranes

Determinations of drug fluxes through semi-permeable cellophanemembranes are used to evaluate cyclodextrin complexes and cyclodextrin containingdrug formulations. In the present study we investigated how the cyclodextrin concentration,the membrane thickness and the molecular weight cut off (MWCO) of the membraneinfluence drug fluxes. The cyclodextrin used was 2-hydroxypropyl--cyclodextrin(HP--CD) and the sample drug was hydrocortisone. The MWCO ofthe membranes ranged from 500 to 14,000 and the HP--CD concentrationranged from 0 to 25% (w/v). The hydrocortisone flux from saturated solutions through the MWCO 500 membrane was unaffected by the cyclodextrin concentration. When MWCO of the membrane was greater than the molecular weight of the complex the flux fromsolutions saturated with hydrocortisone increased with increasing HP--CD concentration.This increase showed negative deviation from linearity. When the flux was correctedfor the viscosity increase with increasing HP--CD concentration then the fluxpattern could be described on the basis of Fick's first law and Stokes–Einsteinequation. However the flux did not correlate with the viscosity when it was increasedby adding polymer to the saturated drug solutions. It was shown that the observed fluxpattern was consistent with self-association of cyclodextrin complexes in the aqueousdonor phase.