Insufficient sleep can disrupt circadian organization and adversely affect skin condition. Perturbation of the cutaneous clock, which governs skin homeostasis, may contribute to this deterioration. In our study, a six-botanical mixture extract increased PER2 promoter-driven luciferase output in HaCaT keratinocytes, and reduced IL6 and CXCL10 expression, two PER2-associated inflammatory mediators. Separately, a 4-week single-arm pilot study evaluated a cream containing 2.00% (w/w) of a liquid preparation of this extract, applied nightly by 22 women aged 40–70 years with poor sleep quality. Skin indicators, sleep, mood, and salivary melatonin and cortisol were assessed as changes from baseline at week 4. The 13 skin indicators changed from baseline across the anti-aging, barrier, complexion, and dark-circle categories (Cohen’s d 0.47–4.81). Sleep duration increased, whereas PSQI-K and PHQ-9 scores decreased; the melatonin day–night difference increased (d = 0.75); cortisol measures did not change significantly. No adverse skin reactions were reported. These exploratory findings do not establish product-attributable efficacy or a causal PER2-mediated mechanism; placebo, vehicle, expectancy, seasonal, behavioral, and regression-to-the-mean effects cannot be excluded. A randomized, vehicle-controlled study is required, with prespecified primary outcomes, denser circadian sampling, and clock activity measured directly in treated skin.
This study uses a recently proposed phase-sensitive optical coherence elastography (OCE) method to visualize diffusion and associated skin dehydration by reconstructing osmotically induced strains and assessing topical solution penetration in ex vivo human shin, rat dorsal, and porcine perioral skin, as well as in vivo human forearm skin, for the first time. Aqueous glycerol, ethanol, and tartrazine solutions at various concentrations were investigated. Initial penetration kinetics were characterized over the first 150 s by monitoring penetration-associated osmotic-strains. OCE revealed that, during the initial penetration phase, porcine skin is markedly more permeable than human skin, despite its greater mechanical robustness, whereas rat skin exhibits comparable permeability to human skin. OCE imaging further showed that the stratum corneum (SC), a superficial layer only several tens of micrometers thick, provides the primary skin barrier, and that partial SC removal markedly increases permeability. Enhanced skin stabilization enabled preliminary in vivo measurements by suppressing motion artifacts caused by cardiac pulsation and respiration, and the results were consistent with ex vivo findings. These results indicate that, for the hydrophilic/polar substances tested, rat skin is a more representative model of human skin permeability than porcine skin, highlighting the potential of OCE for real-time monitoring of skin penetration and associated dehydration.
Collagen and hyaluronic acid (HA) are major extracellular matrix (ECM) components involved in skin structure and tissue homeostasis. However, the biological effects of different collagen sources, when combined with HA, following intestinal passage, remain incompletely characterised. This study investigated the effects of bovine and marine collagen hydrolysates and a compositionally distinct biomimetic formulation, each combined with two distinct HA preparations (such as GreenIuronic® and sodium hyaluronate), in an integrated gut–skin in vitro model. Caco-2 intestinal cells were used to assess barrier integrity, fluorescein permeability, basolateral recovery of the measured analytes, oxidative stress and tight junction-related proteins. A skin co-culture model was subsequently exposed to basolateral medium collected from treated Caco-2 cultures and analysed for cell viability and ECM-related endpoints. The tested combinations generally improved transepithelial electrical resistance, passage through the intestinal model, cell viability, and tight junction protein expression compared with untreated controls. Following exposure to basolateral medium collected from treated Caco-2 cultures, the skin co-culture model showed changes in ECM-related measurements, including collagen, elastin and measured HA levels. Combinations containing GreenIuronic® were generally associated with stronger effects under the experimental conditions tested. Western blot analyses further supported modulation of ECM-related proteins, including COL1A1, HAS2, ELN, and MMP1, suggesting a shift towards a matrix-supportive profile. In conclusion, these findings provide preliminary in vitro evidence that collagen-HA combinations may modulate intestinal barrier-related parameters and extracellular matrix-associated measured endpoints within an integrated gut-skin model.
Thai herbal medicine is an ancient Thai approach to the treatment of psoriasis. However, its treatment of psoriasis has no evidence of clinical study evidence, and its mechanism remains unclear. The present study investigated the therapeutic effects and mechanism of action of Thai herbal formulations in treating psoriasis. A single-arm pre–post design study on traditional Thai medicine was conducted with twenty psoriasis patients presenting plaque, guttate, and erythrodermic types throughout a continuous period of 12 weeks. The outcome measurements, including Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and hematological and safety parameters, were assessed at baseline and post-therapy. Molecular docking was employed to clarify the mechanism of action for psoriasis-targeting therapies. The preliminary clinical observations demonstrated that Thai herbal formulations significantly improved both psoriasis severity and quality of life post-therapy (p < 0.05) for plaque, guttate, and erythrodermic psoriasis, without serious adverse effects. Additionally, molecular docking analyses indicated that Thai herbal formulations could interact with the protein targets cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and interleukin (IL)-6, therefore alleviating psoriasis symptoms by modulating inflammatory pathways. The findings suggested that Thai herbal formulations may function through multi-target mechanisms, exhibiting potential as natural therapeutic medicines for psoriasis.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a promising bioactive compound for skin applications; however, its topical delivery is limited by poor aqueous solubility, high lipophilicity, and chemical instability. Here, a polypeptide-stabilised oil-in-water emulsion enabling CBD encapsulation (ENC-CBD) was developed as an innovative delivery system to enhance the epidermal bioavailability and biological activity of CBD. Stable 216 nm ENC-CBD containing 175 mg/mL CBD exhibited long-term physicochemical stability over 18 months, maintaining CBD content, viscosity, density, and particle size within predefined specifications. Cytocompatibility studies in human keratinocytes (HaCaT) and dermal fibroblasts (HDF) showed concentration-dependent effects, with excellent biocompatibility at 1.75 mg/mL. In UVB-irradiated cellular models, ENC-CBD significantly reduced IL-6 and IL-8 production by 93% and 73%, respectively. Moreover, in reconstructed human epidermal tissues, ENC-CBD was non-irritant and achieved markedly greater epidermal CBD accumulation than non-encapsulated CBD, reaching approximately 11- and 7-fold higher levels after 6 h and 24 h, respectively. ENC-CBD applied to skin models significantly attenuated UV-induced inflammation characterised by overexpression of IL-6, IL-8, IL-1B, and TNF genes, while the delivery system appeared to have, to some extent, some anti-inflammatory properties. Overall, polypeptide-based emulsion carrier enhanced CBD epidermal delivery and its anti-inflammatory activity, highlighting its potential as a topical ingredient for skin inflammation.
