ARTICLE
Auteur(s) : Taous Lassel
Health and Innovation Director, Danone Research
The skin, like any other organ, requires appropriate nutrients
to function healthily and therefore diet and nutrition play an
essential role in maintaining skin health and quality. The health
of the skin is not only important in terms of cosmetic
attractiveness but also for its role as a protective barrier and
regulating water lost from the body.
The skin is constantly exposed to environmental factors such as
the climate, UV light and noxious substances, all of which can lead
to skin damage. In addition, internal factors such as the immune
response and ageing influence skin function. For these reasons,
good daily skin care and protection, ensuring adequate intake of
water as well as a healthy diet and are all essential for
maintaining the condition of the skin.
The essential role of dermonutrition
Modern nutritional science is currently developing new insights
into the relation between food intake and skin disorders. There is
a growing interest in the role of diet, specific nutrients and
supplements in protecting the skin function and preventing or
reducing the risk of skin disease. Certain food nutrients have
proven to be biologically relevant by acting at a cellular level,
such as through enhancing keratinocyte differentiation and skin
barrier function in both normal skin function and in skin disease
such as eczema or atopic dermatitis.
This scientific-based evidence has led to the development of a
new discipline called DermoNutrition where the potential effects of
certain nutrients on skin quality and function are investigated.
Accumulating evidence supported by clinical studies on the
beneficial effects of certain dietary components, including
polyunsaturated fatty acids, polyphenols and probiotics has shown
significant effects in enhancing skin health [1-6].
Ingestion of appropriately selected foodstuffs (specific
vegetable oils or plants) as well as food supplements may provide
the opportunity for a more widespread and consistent delivery of
products to the entire skin surface. As is normally the case in
food and nutrition science, the delivery form and the food vector
plays a key role in ensuring optimal delivery of nutrients
throughout the body.
Basically a functional food development will have to take into
consideration several parameters such as scientific knowledge on
existing or new ingredients, safety and toxicity of the potential
ingredients, regulatory status and of course technical product
development that should lead to great tasting products. A
simplified process is illustrated in figure 1.
Essensis®, an innovation from Danone Research
Based on this approach the Essensis® dairy product range
was developed by the centre of research of Groupe Danone in
cooperation with dermatological experts after a precise analysis of
the function of the skin, skin barrier function and mechanisms
through which certain food ingredients may enhance the latter. This
product range is intended for people in good general health, but it
is specifically those that have dry or sensitive skin.
Four components at levels of intake selected for their efficacy
on skin function and safety were incorporated into the dairy
matrix:
- – 750 mg of borage oil supplying the equivalent of
150 mg of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA);
- – 55 mg of green tea extract supplying 47 mg of
catechins;
- – 2 mg of vitamin E (in the form of
dl-alpha-tocopherol acetate concentrate);
- – 5.109 CFU of Lactobacillus casei DN-114 001
(i.e. 5 × 107 CFU/g).
Data available from toxicological studies, together with
consumption simulation studies and analytical studies performed by
Danone indicate that the added ingredients borage oil, vitamin E,
and green tea extract come from natural sources, are food grade and
are safe when incorporated into human food. As such,
Essensis® is a natural, nutritional and tasty way to
improve skin condition.
In order to demonstrate the functional effect of the product,
specific studies of the product as marketed were conducted on a
population representative of the target population.
The bioavailability study conducted under controlled conditions
and conducted in compliance with the principles of the Declaration
of Helsinki and Good Clinical Practices (CPMP/ICH/135/95) showed
that GLA was effectively absorbed by subjects constituting the
target population for the product. GLA results not only show
effective and dose-dependent post-prandial absorption but also a
very positive effect of incorporation in the dairy matrix,
doubtless due to emulsification of the borage oil (figure 2).
A second randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in
subjects with dry and sensitive skin demonstrated the efficacy of
Essensis® in enhancing skin barrier function as measured
by a reduction in a validated marker-transepidermal water loss
(TEWL). This occurred after 6 weeks daily consumption of 2 servings
of Essensis®, and was maintained throughout the study
period of 24 weeks. The improvement was statistically and
biologically significant (figure 3).
Relative to control, skin barrier function was significantly
improved after consumption of the active product. As expected,
there was deterioration in TEWL over the winter period [8] which
then improved slightly over the rest of the study. However, as a
result of eating the active dairy product, the skin was better able
to resist the environment impact on barrier function presumably due
to changes in stratum corneum composition.
The reinforcement of barrier function was probably due to
combined effects of GLA, catechins, vitamin E and probiotics on
epidermal differentiation. Nevertheless, the role of GLA is maybe
more important for improving barrier function integrity, as
previously reported for both borage oil and evening primerose. The
Broche and Platt study [9] demonstrated an improvement of barrier
function after supplementation by 320 and 740 mg of GLA in
elderly subjects while Muggli et al. [9] used 300 mg in a
younger population. The relative improvements in TEWL to baseline
were 10.8% and relative to control were 7.7% and 9.1% respectively
in these two studies. However, the effect of the active product in
this study had an effect on TEWL more quickly (6 weeks) and the
percentage improvement in barrier function relative to control was
greater (13.25%), presumably due to the improved bioavailability of
at least the GLA in the product. A summary is presented in table 1.
Table 1 Effect of GLA-rich oils on skin barrier
function.
|
- Ziboh VA, 1992
- Am J Clin Nutr
|
- Muggli, 1997
- (Cosmetics and Toiletries magazine)
|
- Broche & Platt, 2000
- (Arch Gerontol Geriatr)
|
- Muggli, 2005
- (Int Journal of Cosm Sciences)
[10]
|
- Callaway J, 2005
- (J Derm Treat)
|
- Puch F, 2008
- (Exp Dermatol)
[7]
|
|
Volunteers
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20 healthy adults (25-55y)
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40 (32-60y) with irritated skins using SDS
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29 Elderly subjects
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40 subjects
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Atopic patients
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72 healthy women with dry and sensitive skin
|
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Ingredients consumed
|
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3 g EPO → 345 mg GLA/d
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360-720 mg/day GLA
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20 → 345 mg GLA (contained in EPO)
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Hempseed oil (contained BO)
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300 mg GLA/d
|
|
Control
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Olive oil
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No EPO consumption
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No
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20 → 0 mg GLA
|
no
|
Yes without GLA
|
|
Period consumption
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6 weeks
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12 weeks
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8 weeks
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12 weeks
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20 weeks
|
24 weeks
|
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Results
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- Increase of DGLA in (PMN) (circulating leucocytes implicated in
inflammation)
- decrease generation of LTB4 by PMN
|
- At 12 weeks:
- Decrease TEWL 10.2%
- Increase moisture 13.9%
- Increase firmness & Roughness
|
- – 11% decrease of TEWL
- – Decrease skin dryness (42% → 14%)
- – Decrease skin itchness (34% → 0%)
- – No significant alteration of skin hydration
|
7.7% decrease of TEWL
|
- TEWL decrease (trend with p = 0.074)
- Skin dryness and itchiness improved
|
- At 6 weeks:
- Decrease TEWL 13.25%
- BMI<25 population more respondent
- Increase of GLA in RBCL
- No changes in SC hydration
|
Conclusion
These studies demonstrate for the first time the effect of a
fermented dairy product on increasing the bioavailability of GLA
and together with catechins, vitamin E and probiotics in the
product its effects on improving skin barrier function.
References
1 Boelsma E, Hendriks HF, Roza L. Nutritional skin
care: health effects of micronutrients and fatty acids. Am J Clin
Nutr 2001; 73: 853-64.
2 Ziboh VA, Cho Y, Mani I, et al. Biological
significance of essential fatty
acids/prostanoids/lipoxygenase-derived monohydroxy fatty acids in
the skin. Arch Pharm Res 2002; 25: 747-58.
3 Fan YY, Chapkin RS. Importance of dietary
gamma-linolenic acid in human health and nutrition. J Nutr 1998;
128: 1411-4.
4 Hsu S. Green tea and the skin. J Am Acad Dermatol 2005;
52: 1049-59.
5 Ouwehand AC, Salminen S, Isolauri E.
Probiotics: an overview of beneficial effects. Antonie Van
Leeuwenhoek 2002; 82: 279-89.
6 Rawlings AV, Harding CR. Moisturization and skin
barrier function. Dermatol Ther 2004; 17(Suppl 1): 43-8.
7 Puch F, Samson-Villeger S, Guyonnet D,
et al. Consumption of functional fermented milk containing
borage oil, green tea and vitamin E enhances skin barrier function.
Exp Dermatol 2008; 17(8): 668-74; ( Epub 2008 Mar 3).
8 Agner T, Serup J. Seasonal variation of skin
resistance to irritants. Br J Dermatol 1989; 121: 323-8.
9 Brosche T, Platt D. Effect of borage oil consumption
on fatty acid metabolism, transepidermal water loss and skin
parameters in elderly people. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2000; 30:
139-50.
10 Muggli R. Systemic evening primrose oil improves the
biophysical skin parameters of healthy adults. Int J Cosm Sc 2005;
27: 243-9.
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