TAGS: Sun Care Skin Care
dsm-firmenich has conducted a new study to investigate the relationship between UV exposure and the skin microbiome.
By using the right mix of UV filters, you can help strengthen your skin's natural resilience to harmful UV exposure.
Microbiome Provides a First Line of Defense Against UV Radiation
The skin microbiome has been gaining increasing attention within beauty and personal care due to its role in human health and well-being, and it may now become a new frontier in sun care.
By forming a protective barrier on our skin, the microbiome provides a first line of defense against external stressors, including UV radiation. However, sun care and the use of UV filters is one area of personal care where more work is required to understand the relationship with the skin microbiome.
DSM recognized this need and conducted the first clinical study exploring the benefits of UV filters for the skin microbiome upon UV exposure. As well as confirming the impact of UV radiation on microbial composition, its expert team is the first to show an active benefit of sunscreen application for the skin microbiome and its protective function. Within this, it identified Lactobacillus crispatus as a key player within the UV-irradiated skin microbiome – a novel and exciting finding for the skin microbiome field.
DSM also explored the associated benefits for consumers, where UV filters that support L. crispatus populations can help preserve and strengthen the skin’s natural resilience after UV exposure.
For sun care developers, these insights feed into the identification of UV-protective ingredients that can be used for skin resilience-strengthening formulations – including a selection of microbiome-friendly-certified PARSOL® UV filters.
By identifying an active benefit from UV filters, its photoprotection expert team enters the new ground in the skin microbiome research area.
Here they explore this topic in more detail, including the outputs of our study and key takeaways for UV-protective personal care developers.
Protecting the Skin Microbiome can Support Healthier Skin
The skin microbiome is an incredibly diverse collection of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, that reside on human skin.
These microorganisms play a crucial role in supporting our skin health and overall well-being – for example, by helping to strengthen our protective skin barrier and shielding our skin from potential pathogens and irritants, and by supporting our immune system.
As their understanding of this complex ecosystem has grown, they have also seen how protecting the skin microbiome can support healthier skin. Maintaining a balanced microbiome is vital for these dynamics, with both quantity and quality being important when it comes to microbial communities. Environmental factors, for example, can negatively influence the skin microbiome, with imbalances previously linked to stresses such as pollution and temperature.
When it comes to UV radiation, some early evidence suggests that exposure can negatively impact the skin microbiome by altering the relative abundance of certain bacteria, but there is still much that they don't know about this relationship and how it affects skin health. Several UV filters have also been tested in the industry and proved to have no detrimental effect on the skin microbiome, but no studies have fully explored this relationship, or considered whether there could be any active benefit of UV filters for the skin microbiome.
Recognizing a need to better investigate the impact of UV exposure on the skin microbiome and any potential advantages of UV filters, they designed and executed a pioneering exploratory clinical study to explore these relationships.
DSM’s Pilot Trial for UV and the Skin Microbiome
DSM set out its study with two key objectives:
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To evaluate the impact of erythemal UV exposure on the skin microbiome
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To determine if sunscreen offers a protective effect for UV-exposed skin microbiome
It chose a study design with 10 female volunteers, each providing 4 skin samples exposed to erythemal UV irradiation, untreated or treated. All samples, including control samples, were analyzed in vivo and in vitro for changes in skin microbiome composition.
Skin microbiome diversity change:
Analysis of the skin samples showed that both UV irradiation and treatment had a distinct impact on the relative abundances and diversity of the different bacteria found within the skin microbiome.
Protection of Lactobacillus crispatus:
Within the highly diverse skin microbiome community, they identified one strain of bacteria that reacted very sensitively to UV exposure: Lactobacillus crispatus.
Lactobacilli are a group of lactic-acid-producing bacteria that are recognized as a key component of the innate immune response and are known to be beneficial for human health. Lactobacilli are key to maintaining a stable and acidic environment and through this help to preserve skin barrier function and resilience. Lactobacilli also helps to maintain the overall balance of the microbial community and protect against skin pathogens and infections. L. crispatus is one type of Lactobacillus bacteria that has previously been identified as a key member of the intestinal and vaginal microbiomes, yet little is known around its dynamics on the skin.
L. crispatus was found to be the most abundant Lactobacillus species on the skin in their study and are among the first to identify the potential of L. crispatus as a relevant member of the natural skin microbiome. Also seen that the relative abundance of L. crispatus changed significantly within the UV-irradiated skin microbiome. DSM found that UV exposure decreased the abundance of L. crispatus in vivo, confirming that UV radiation can indeed cause imbalances in the skin microbiome with potential implications for skin health. In addition, an active benefit of UV protection was seen in vivo, with the SPF 20 sunscreen lessening the UV-induced reduction of L. crispatus.
Following the observation that specific microorganisms such as L. crispatus can benefit from UV protection, DSM conducted further in vitro experiments that confirmed its findings. Additionally, it could identify an active benefit of selective UV filters on beneficial bacteria:
PARSOL® 340,
PARSOL® ZX,
PARSOL® 1789, and
PARSOL® EHT effectively protected L. crispatus abundance upon UV radiation.
It also identified that a smart PARSOL® filter combination with e.g. its microbiome-friendly certified UV filters PARSOL® 1789,
PARSOL® Shield, and PARSOL® EHT, allows SPF to be maximized while protection of symbiotic bacterial species is maintained to strengthen UV-exposed skin resilience.
In addition, they have seen in vitro that the UV filters used within the test showed selective protective behavior: populations of L. crispatus or Staphylococcus epidermidis, which was considered as another beneficial reference species, were supported by UV filters; in contrast, observed that a UV-induced growth of Cutibacterium acnes could be attenuated by certain UV filters.
C. acnes is a major component of the skin microbiome, but it has been widely linked to the development of inflammatory acne in the event of a skin microbiome imbalance and under use of comedogenic ingredients. DSM could see that UV-induced growth of C. acne could be prevented by selected UV filters – such as PARSOL® 1789, PARSOL® EHS, and PARSOL® 340 – while also maintaining balance by supporting populations of other bacteria such as S. epidermidis.
These findings suggest the specific use of those filters for sunscreen formulations that are tailor-made for acne-prone skin.
Takeaways
Empowering Natural Skin Resilience
DSM have observed a growing consumer preference for products that support and enhance the natural properties of the skin. Its study addresses this consumer need by highlighting a clear benefit for the skin.
Have shown that a selection of UV filters not only shields against harmful UV radiation but also enhances the skin's natural resilience by protecting the survival of beneficial bacteria within the skin microbiome. Using sun care products containing an appropriate filter combination can therefore support skin health. It helps to maintain skin structure and function by preserving the skin microbiome’s natural function. This increased resilience can also help protect against the damaging consequences of environmental stressors such as UV radiation and delay and counteract the effects of skin aging.
UV Filter Selection and Formulation for Sun Care Developers
As well as entering a new area of research, the study results were translated into two patent applications (filed June 2022). Their insights help sun care developers create formulations with additional differentiating potential in the market, driven by their choice of selected PARSOL® UV filters.
Through work, it has also provided recommendations of which UV filters are best suited for skin health benefits and support a healthy skin microbiome.
If choosing to use these filters in a sun care formulation, they additionally provide formulators tools to promote skin microbiome benefits in the final product – including formulation guidance to support the formulation of microbiome-friendly products based on established experience in this area.
For example, to support the achievement of a microbiome-friendly claim, formulators can use certified microbiome-friendly filters from the DSM PARSOL® portfolio, such as PARSOL® 1789, PARSOL® Shield, and PARSOL® EHT. Also offer Flor’Active Defense SPF 30 – a first-to-market certified microbiome-friendly sunscreen formulation proven to respect the skin’s microbial diversity, protect against UV irradiation and support skin health.
Explore UV Filters Range from DSM
Source: DSM
