Stem Cells, Wellness and Claims Substantiation Take Center Stage at IFSCC Congress

By: Rachel L. Grabenhofer

Posted: October 24, 2012

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Additional related topics included a dendritic type molecule to treat acne by balancing keratolytic activity without cytotoxicity, by Estelle Loing of Lucas Meyer Cosmetics; improvement of chronological skin aging through autophagy regulation, by Kanae Tashiro of Pola Chemical Industries; and the chances and risks of alternative preservation, by Andrea Wingenfeld of ISP/Ashland. Wingenfeld reminded attendees, "The main risks in preservation are overdose, which causes irritation, and under-dose with subsequent contamination." She noted that deactivations can occur, of which product developers are not always aware.

Finally, Yoko Gozu, also of Shiseido, examined the circadian rhythms of skin moisturizing functions and rhythm-regulating materials. Her team observed the HAS2 "clock gene" via bioluminescence, which was found to be active at night, as was the synthesis of filaggrin. She noted that with stress, the circadian wave flattens. "These studies suggest that day time and night time skin care have different meanings," said Gozu, who proposed that products be developed to optimize their time of application, i.e., "time-tuning."

Efficacy and Claims Substantiation

Clearly, efficacy testing and claims substantiation have become crucial to the industry. After all, if products have no effects, why would anyone use them? In fact, even in research not focused on testing methods, testing is still involved, as would be expected. Various methods have been introduced in recent years, to which improvements have been made. However, a few novel methods presented at the congress have the potential to become game-changers.

T. Yamashita of Shiseido presented one such technology, which enables the noninvasive in situ assessment of structural alterations to human dermis caused by photoaging. The collagen-specific imaging is based on second harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. "This technique is among the hottest current techniques," said Yamashita. "The target-specific multiphoton imaging uses femtosecond pulse lasers to show the dermal fibers in human skin." This paper won the IFSCC Basic Research Award.

Philippe Mondon of Sederma described the evaluation of dermal extracellular matrix and epidermal-dermal junction modifications using four methods: histology, matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization mass spectrometric imaging (MALDI-MSI), in vivo confocal laser microscopy and echography. These complementary methods were used to measure the effects of aging and potential anti-aging peptides. Also, David Boudier of Silab showed a pilot study using fluorescence in vivo laser scanning microscopy for fast, qualitative and quantitative measurements of the barrier function.