Empowering the Skin Matrix

Skin Food

Nutrients are essential for maintaining a healthy skin matrix, as they support collagen, elastin and GAGs, not just through nourishment but also by protecting against damage and imbalance.

UV irradiation--both UVB and UVA--increases certain enzymes, including elastinase and MMPs, in turn increasing the degradation of elastin and collagen fibers—sometimes for days after UV exposure. Retinoic acid (vitamin A) is one nutrient that can inhibit UV-induced MMP activities and may also increase GAG levels, which may help the skin matrix retain water, as well as boost collagen levels.

Antioxidants like vitamin A also help address another consequence of UV exposure, reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS and other free radicals can over stimulate MMPs in the skin. Cosmeceutical companies often utilize a number of antioxidants, from vitamins to botanicals, against oxidative stress in the skin matrix.

Vitamins C and E are two popular skin matrix antioxidants. AGI Dermatics features these nutrients in its Antioixdant Refoliator product, which also contains arabidopsis thaliana extract to help repair oxidative damage.

Other botanical antioxidants used in skin matrix cosmeceuticals include green tea and wine polyphenols, including resveratrol, which is known to promote dermal healing and supports sirtuins that may play a role in fibroblast health.

On top of damaging environs (sun, pollution) and lifestyles (smoking), aging itself robs the skin matrix of its ability to regenerate its structural components, including collagen, elastin and GAGs. Many joint health ingredient suppliers are finding their formulations of type II collagen and hyaluronic acid—a GAG in the skin—are effective in replenishing these compounds, which deplete as part of the aging process. In fact, BioCell reports a combination of collagen II and hyaluronic acid inhibits hyaluronidase, an enzyme that degrades hyaluronic acid and contributes to signs of aging on the visible surface of the skin.

French cosmeceutical ingredient firm Silab focused on the papillary region of the dermis, which features finger-like papillae that provide a connection with the epidermis. These papillae are most obvious in the ridges of the hands and feet (fingerprints) that are influenced by the dermal projections. Silab states Papilactyl D, which contains oligosaccharides derived from the tiger nut, increases the elasticity and strength of the skin matrix by maintaining the function of the oxytalan microfibril network (a cushion), restoring functional collagens XVI and XII, and normalizing collagens I and VI. Silab's tests show Papilactyl D can significantly decrease the number of wrinkles, total wrinkled area and wrinkle length.

Kiss on the Lipids

Carla Danca, technical sales representative, AAK USA/Lipids for Care, said the skin matrix is frequently likened to bricks-and-mortar, where the skin cells are the bricks and the matrix is the mortar. "This mortar is made up of five main components—free fatty acids, ceramides, cholesterol, phospholipids and cholesterol sulphate (in order of decreasing concentration)," she explained. "As the lipid ‘mortar’ is depleted, the skin cells can begin to crumble away and deteriorate. As the outer levels of the skin (the stratum corneum) start to flake away and ‘crumble,’ it can expose the live inner layers to potentially harmful materials and further damage."

Healthy skin has a smooth outer layer with only dead “corneocytes,” or flattened dead skin cells, which protect almost impenetrable outer barrier protects the internal layers of the dermis, including collagen and elastin.

A part of the skin's defense of its dermal layer is an alternating pattern of hydrophilic and hydrophobic layers. Water-soluble compounds cannot penetrate the hydrophobic layers, and oil-soluble compounds are stumped by hydrophilic layer.  This would seem an impenetrable defense, but there are ways this system breaks down.

"Each morning when we shower or wash our hands, we are using a surfactant that is formulated to remove dirt and grease from your body," Klein said. "When we use surfactants, especially those with a C12 chain length, they have the potential to penetrate the skin (as they have both hydrophobic and hydrophilic portions), which can take away from the intercellular lipids (i.e. the mortar)."

Another lifestyle factor is diet, which too often nowadays contains little of the good fats, including polyunsaturated fatty acids. This leads to a deficiency in optimal lipids reaching vital organs, including the skin.

AAK has concentrated on vegetable-derived fats, as vegetables contain many free fatty acids that are the same or similar to those native to the skin. The outer layer of the skin can contain up to 25 percent of free fatty acids, as well as 25 percent of phospholipids, according to Klein.

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