Improvement of skin barrier function using lipid mixture

Dry skin is caused mainly by the perturbation of stratum corneum lipids which affected by ageing, change of season, excess use of surfactant and the effect of disease like atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. Intercellular lipid structures in stratum corneum are responsible for the barrier function of mammalian skin. The major lipd classes that can be extracted from stratum corneum are ceramides, cholesterol and fatty acid, which make up approximately 50, 25, 10 percent of the stratum corneum lipid mass, respectively. Small amount of cholesterol sulfate, phospholipids, glycosylceramide and cholesterol esters are also present. Recent studies have shown that application of one or two these lipids to the perturbed skin delays barrier recovery; only equimolar mixtures allow normal recovery. We observed that barrier recovery rate was improved in hairless mouse by topical application of single neutral lipids (ceramide, free fatty acid, cholesterol) and lipid mixtures. Whereas the application of single lipid didn’t allows a significant enhancement comparing with normal barrier repair, the equimolar mixtures of 3 components(including synthetic pseudoceramide PC104) improved barrier repair, as assessed by the transepidermal water loss. At clinical study to the volunteers aged over sixty, skin dryness recuperated by the increase of moisture(capacitance) and the reduction of scaling. Utilization of physiologic lipid mixture containing natural ceramides or synthetic pseudoceramide could lead to new forms of topical therapy for the dryness and dermatoses(e.g., psoriasis, atopic dermatitis and irritant dermatitis).