α-ionone promotes keratinocyte functions and accelerates epidermal barrier recovery
Yang Dandan, Mengli Fu, Qi Zhao, Yong Wang, Li Tan, Bei Feng, Echuan Li, Yoshihito Nishijima, Zhenliang Sun, Zhenlin Hu
Abstract
Background: As a common fragrance ingredient, α-ionone is widely used in cosmetics, perfume, and hygiene products. Nevertheless, little information is available for its biological activities on the skin. In this study, we investigated the effect of α-ionone on keratinocyte functions associated with skin barrier repair and further evaluated its skin barrier recovery capacity to explore its therapeutic potential for the treatment of skin barrier disruption. Methods: using human immortalized keratinocytes (HaCaT cells) as experimental model. The barrier recovery effects of topical hydrogels containing 0.1% or 1% α-ionone were tested on the volar forearm of 31 healthy volunteers by measuring transepidermal water loss (TEWL) and stratum corneum (SC) hydration following barrier disruption induced by repeated tape-stripping. The statistical significance was evaluated by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by a Dunnett's post-hoc test. Results: study showed that topical application of α-ionone-containing hydrogels accelerated the epidermal barrier recovery of human skin after barrier disruption by tape stripping. Treatment with hydrogel containing 1% α-ionone resulted in a significant increase of above 15% in the barrier recovery rate at day 7 post-treatment when compared to the vehicle control (P<0.01). Conclusions: These results demonstrated the role of α-ionone in the improvement of keratinocyte functions and the epidermal barrier recovery. These findings suggest possible therapeutic application of α-ionone in the treatment of skin barrier disruption.