Poloxamer 188

TCR was purchased from CKD Bio Corporation (Ansan, Korea). Cocoglyceride was obtained from BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany). The reference product was 0.1% Protopic^® ointment (Astellas Pharm, Tokyo, Japan). Stearic acid was purchased from Tokyo Chemical Industry Co. Ltd (Tokyo, Japan). Poloxamer 188 was supplied by Croda International (Snaith, UK), and soybean lecithin was purchased from Samchun Chemical (Pyeongtaek, Korea). Brij^® 93 and Brij^® 58 were purchased from Sigma Aldrich Corporation (St. Louis, USA). Methylene chloride was purchased from OCI Corporation (Seoul, Korea). High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) grade ethanol and acetonitrile were purchased from Honeywell Burdick & Jackson (Muskegon, USA). Water was purified by filtration in the laboratory. HPLC-grade solvents were used for the analysis. Sprague Dawley^® Rats and New Zealand white rabbits were purchased from Samtako Corporation (Osan, Korea).

PLGA [50:50 L:G, Mw 24,000- 38,000 (Resomer RG503H) and 75:25 L:G, Mw 76,000-115,000, (Resomer RG756)], Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, 87-90% hydrolyzed, average mol wt 30,000-70,000) and Mowiol^® 4-88 (Mw~31,000) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich, Australia. Ultrapure chitosan chloride (CS, Protasan^® UP CL113, 75%-90% deacetylation, molecular weight 50–150 kDa) was purchased from NovaMatrix (FMC BioPolymer, Drammen, Norway). Poloxamer 188 (commercially named Pluronic F68 (PF68), Mw 9000-10000) was obtained from Croda International (Snaith, UK). All the solvents used were of AR grade supplied from Merck.