At its best, peer-reviewed science is the bedrock upon which the industry is based. New information becomes new technology. To loosely quote Plato, “need is the mother of invention” (or innovation), and today’s emerging aesthetic technologies are intended to meet existing and emerging needs, as well as challenges. This ballet unfolds in the pages of journals, where rigorous examination separates the theoretical from the factual.
Efficacious Antioxidants and Vitamin C: A Novel Free Radical Defense Approach
Among existing needs is the well-established field of skincare, where decade-by-decade advancements look like leaps along a trail that has literally been trod for thousands of years. Yet, the science behind skincare is often suspect because regulatory rules do not require the same scientific rigor as drugs and medical Adevices are subject to. A recent study1 in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology elucidates the groundwork for and rationale behind a potentially game changing formulation in the fight against free radical damage with two experiments. The combination of antioxidant actives consists of a variety of proven players, as well as a vitamin C derivative sodium salt which, in contrast to the oft utilized vitamin C/L-ascorbic acid variants, preserves rather than inhibits the presence and neogenesis of elastin.
Alan Widgerow, MBBCh, MMed, division chief of research for the Center for Tissue Engineering at the University of California Irvine (Irvine, Calif.) is lead author of the article. “Any dermatologist can tell you that a large volume of reactive oxygen species is generated on a daily basis stemming from photodamage and other stressors that are applied to the skin, wear and tear, and other extrinsic causes, resulting in free radical damage which the body is constantly combatting,” he explained. “Vitamin C, a backbone of cosmeceutical preparations, was the first original quencher of these reactive oxygen species. So, it has taken a key leading role in cosmeceuticals over the years – even as many alternative antioxidants have emerged – in our efforts to bolster and maintain skin health.”
While the community has always regarded vitamin C as a stimulant of collagen and a solid antioxidant, which it is, nobody had looked at what happens with elastin, a vital element within the extracellular matrix. “Research began to surface suggesting that the traditional vitamin C, L-ascorbate, was causing damage to elastin, and nobody had looked at vitamin C from that perspective,” Dr. Widgerow continued. “This caught our attention and generated a lot of interest. We also noticed a discovery out of Canada that vitamin C sodium salt derivatives actually conserved elastin. So, first we set out to validate an antioxidant formulation we created using recognized antioxidants known to be powerful, plus this elastin-conserving vitamin C, versus a similar formulation with traditional vitamin C. Once we validated that the formulations had equivalent antioxidant effects, we subjected an ex vivo skin model – three skin explants from facelift procedures – to each topically administered formulation to compare the effect of each on elastin.”