Study Discovers the Key to Youthful Skin

저자：   업로드：2017-06-02  조회수：

    We have all fallen victim to cluttering our bathroom shelves with an abundance of cosmetic products with the promise of retaining youthful skin, and feeling deflated when none of them actually do. Well, the solution to this on-going issue could finally be upon us.

    However now, new data from a team of investigators at University of Maryland (UMD) suggests that the thiazine dye methylene blue, previously used medicinally, may slow the aging of human skin. Findings from the new study were published recently in Scientific Reports in an article entitled “Anti-Aging Potentials of Methylene Blue for Human Skin Longevity.”

    The UMD team tested the methylene blue for 4 weeks in skin cells from healthy middle-aged donors, as well as those diagnosed with progeria—a rare genetic disease that mimics the normal aging process at an accelerated rate. In addition to methylene blue, the researchers also tested three other known antioxidants: N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC), MitoQ, and MitoTEMPO (mTEM).

    "Our work suggests that methylene blue could be a powerful antioxidant for use in skin care products," explained senior study investigator Kan Cao, Ph.D., associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at UMD. "The effects we are seeing are not temporary. Methylene blue appears to make fundamental, long-term changes to skin cells."

    In the current study, methylene blue outperformed the other three antioxidants, improving several age-related symptoms in cells from both healthy donors and progeria patients. The skin cells—fibroblasts that produce the structural protein collagen—experienced a decrease in damaging molecules known as reactive oxygen species (ROS), a reduced rate of cell death, and an increase in the rate of cell division throughout the 4-week treatment.

    Interestingly, the researchers also tested methylene blue in fibroblasts from older donors (>80 years old) for a period of 4 weeks. At the end of the treatment, the cells from older donors had experienced a range of improvements, including decreased expression of two genes commonly used as indicators of cellular aging: senescence-associated β-galactosidase and p16. 

    "I was encouraged and excited to see skin fibroblasts, derived from individuals more than 80 years old, grow much better in methylene blue-containing medium with reduced cellular senescence markers," noted lead study investigator Zheng-Mei Xiong, Ph.D., assistant research professor of cell biology and molecula

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