In case of radiological skin contamination by uranium compounds, the
only treatments currently available consist in rinsing the contaminated
skin area with water and detergent, or with a calcium salt of diethylene
triamine pentaacetic acid (Ca-DTPA) solution. However, these procedures
are not specific and no efficient treatment for cutaneous contamination
due to uranium exists. In the absence of such treatments, uranium
diffusion through the skin is fast, inducing an internal exposure after
its distribution inside the body through the bloodstream. One part of
the bioavalaible uranium is uptaken in target organs which are the
kidneys and the skeleton, where its toxic effects occur. Therefore a
topical formulation consisting of an oil-in-water nanoemulsion
incorporating a tricarboxylic calixarene molecule, as a specific
chelating agent for uranium, was previously developed. The work achieved
in this thesis aimed at evaluating the ex vivo and in vivo
decontamination efficiency of this new emergency treatment on intact and
superficially wounded skin. For this purpose, skin excoriation model
was used. Reproducible models of superficial wounds consisting of
micro-cuts and micro-punctures were also developed in order to evaluate
the efficiency of the nanoemulsion on physical wounds such as incisions.
These studies showed that the calixarene nanoemulsion could be an
efficient decontaminant treatment, less aggressive than using the
current treatment: soaped water. Its potential cutaneous toxicity was
evaluated on in vitro reconstructed human epidermis using three
different toxicity tests (MTT, LDH and IL-1-α). These studies
demonstrated that the calixarene nanoemulsion did not induce skin
toxicity even after 24 h of exposure time.