Drug therapy for secondary lymphedema has not yet been established. Conventional oral and intravenous administration is difficult to administer in sufficient doses due to adverse events. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a transdermal delivery system that can deliver high concentrations of drugs to the edema area. In this study, we examined the efficacy of transdermal drug delivery in a mouse model of tail edema using ultrasound irradiation (sonication method). Ultrasound irradiation can deliver high-molecular-weight substances subcutaneously, and the percutaneous administration of clobetasol propionate to the mouse tail edema model prevented the enlargement of lymphatic vessels with reduced tail volume. Therefore, steroid administration utilizing ultrasound irradiation is effective in decreasing tail swelling in a mouse tail edema model. Thus, ultrasound irradiation could have the potential to innovate the treatment of secondary lymphedema by directly administering the drug to the edema.
Keywords: lymphedema; steroid; transdermal administration; ultrasound irradiation.