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Topical stabilized retinol treatment induces the expression of HAS genes and HA production in human skin in vitro and in vivo

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Abstract

Skin Aging manifests primarily with wrinkles, dyspigmentations, texture changes, and loss of elasticity. During the skin aging process, there is a loss of moisture and elasticity in skin resulting in loss of firmness finally leading to skin sagging. The key molecule involved in skin moisture is hyaluronic acid (HA), which has a significant water-binding capacity. HA levels in skin decline with age resulting in decrease in skin moisture, which may contribute to loss of firmness. Clinical trials have shown that topically applied ROL effectively reduces wrinkles and helps retain youthful appearance. In the current study, ROL was shown to induce HA production and stimulates the gene expression of all three forms of hyaluronic acid synthases (HAS) in normal human epidermal keratinocytes monolayer cultures. Moreover, in human skin equivalent tissues and in human skin explants, topical treatment of tissues with a stabilized-ROL formulation significantly induced the gene expression of HAS mRNA concomitant with an increased HA production. Finally, in a vehicle-controlled human clinical study, histochemical analysis confirmed increased HA accumulation in the epidermis in ROL-treated human skin as compared to vehicle. These results show that ROL increases skin expression of HA, a significant contributing factor responsible for wrinkle formation and skin moisture, which decrease during aging. Taken together with the activity to increase collagen, elastin, and cell proliferation, these studies establish that retinol provides multi-functional activity for photodamaged skin.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully thank Dr. Yaping Hu for his contributions, and Anne-Sophie Brillouet and David Byren for providing the product formulations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Johnson & Johnson Skin Research Center, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc., 199 Grandview Road, Skillman, NJ, 08558, USA

    Wen-Hwa Li, Manpreet Randhawa, Simarna Kaur, Michael D. Southall & Ramine Parsa

  2. Johnson & Johnson Skin Research Center, JJSBF, A Division of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies, Inc., Val de Reuil, France

    Heng-Kuan Wong & José Serrano

Authors
  1. Wen-Hwa Li
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  2. Heng-Kuan Wong
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  3. José Serrano
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  4. Manpreet Randhawa
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  5. Simarna Kaur
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  6. Michael D. Southall
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  7. Ramine Parsa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ramine Parsa.

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Funding

This study was funded by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc.

Conflict of interest

The authors were employees of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. when these experiments were conducted.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 2013 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Wen-Hwa Li and Heng-Kuan Wong equal contribution.

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Li, WH., Wong, HK., Serrano, J. et al. Topical stabilized retinol treatment induces the expression of HAS genes and HA production in human skin in vitro and in vivo. Arch Dermatol Res 309, 275–283 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-017-1723-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00403-017-1723-6

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