Aquaporin-3, Linkers, Proteins and Hormones

Posted: May 23, 2007

ANAHEIM, Calif., USA—Aquaporin-3, linkers, proteins, hormones, bioresponsive gels, ozone and skin and more were highlighted at the recent Annual Scientific Seminar of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists (SCC). Mini breakfast seminars welcomed early bird attendees to the seminar, held May 10-12, 2007. Regulatory talks on “Demystifying INCI Nomenclature” and the “Safe Cosmetics Act” were featured. Following the breakfast seminars, SCC President Guy Padulo welcomed attendees, thanking the Committee on Scientific Affairs (COSA) for their efforts and introducing COSA Chair, Wil Hemker to the podium.

Conference: Launching into the morning’s session, Barbara Wolf, PhD (Estée Lauder), introduced the first speaker of the Skin and Color Technology track, Lorraine Pena, PhD, of Pfizer. Pena presented on “The Role of Surface Active, Active Ingredients on Cream Stability,” in which she described her objective: To find a suitable surfactant with a lower surface tension and stronger interfacial tension than TEA-ibuprofen. In the end, Pena concluded that, “changing the order of addition changed the stability [of the cream].”

Jessica Yuan (University of Toronto) spoke on the “Optimization of Surfactant Concentrations in Topical Microemulsion Formulations.” The study sought to optimize the surfactant concentration on the vehicle and to investigate the relation between lecithin concentration and delivery performance of the active ingredient. She described linker-based systems based on soybean-extracted lecithin as a surfactant, a mixture of sodium octanoate and octanoic acid as a hydrophilic linker, sorbitan monooleate as a lipophilic linker and isopropyl myristate as the oil phase.

Yuan’s presentation drew great interest from the audience and she sparked some debate during the Q&A session. For example, James (Vince) Gruber, PhD (Arch Chemicals), pointed out that, “Lecithin is a classic liposome material, so how can you be certain you’re working with microemulsions and not liposomes?” Yuan acknowleged this observation and replied they did not really know—that this was not focused on during the study.

Additional talks in the Skin and Color Technology track included Yelena Loginova (Coty International) on “Rheomorphological Changes in Mascara Texture Related to Filling Stress”; Leila Song, PhD (BASF Corp.) on, “Complex Effect Pigments: Technology in Support of Beauty and Fashion”; and “Skin Tryptophan and Cross-linked Collaged Levels are Significantly Reduced by 4-Hydroxycinnamic Acid,” by Nava Dayan, PhD (Lipo Chemicals).