Electrical measurement of moisturizing effect on skin hydration and barrier function in psoriasis patients.

Abstract

Transepidermal water loss (TEWL) in psoriatic skin lesions seems to be related to the severity of the psoriasis, and the electrical capacitance and conductance of the skin are indicators of the hydration level of the stratum corneum. We compared the characteristics of these electrical measurements, in assessing the persistent effect of a moisturizing cream on skin hydration and barrier function in psoriasis patients. Seventeen Korean psoriasis patients were recruited. Their right leg was treated with the moisturizer twice daily for 6 weeks, while their left leg was used as the control site. For each patient, one psoriatic plaque on each leg was selected as the involved psoriatic lesion. Uninvolved psoriatic skin was regarded as the apparently healthy looking skin 4-5 cm away from the periphery of the psoriatic lesion. The TEWL, electrical capacitance and conductance were measured, in order to evaluate the barrier function and hydration level of the stratum corneum. The clinical and biophysical data for each patient were recorded at the start of the study and after 2, 4 and 6 weeks. The degree of skin dryness at the applied area improved progressively. The electrical capacitance at the treated psoriatic lesion increased significantly after 2 weeks, and this improvement was maintained during the entire study period. However, no noticeable change was observed in the electrical conductance. The TEWL showed an inverse pattern to that of the skin capacitance, decreasing during the study period. The skin capacitance and TEWL exhibited good correlation with the visual assessment of skin dryness, but the skin conductance did not. Our data suggest that electrical capacitance and TEWL may be useful in the evaluation of the effect of a moisturizer on the hydration status and barrier function of psoriatic skin.

Novel synthetic ceramide derivatives increase intracellular calcium levels and promote epidermal keratinocyte differentiation

“…Sphingolipids, especially ceramide, are the major components of the intercellular materials in the stratum corneum, and a decrease in some of these molecules may be the cause of several skin diseases related to abnormal keratinocyte differentiation (24). We have studied synthetic ceramides and the multilamellar emulsion expected to reconstitute the abnormal skin barrier that results from the decrease in ceramide biosynthesis, such as in atopic dermatitis and psoriasis, and the barrier impairment induced by glucocorticoid-epidermal atrophy (15)(16)(17)(18). Here, we studied another possible use of these synthetic ceramides: as a bioactive lipid mediator of keratinocyte differentiation.…”

“…Recently, we developed the synthetic ceramide PC-9S (N-(2,3-dihydroxypropyl)-2-hexyl-3-oxo-decanamide) and reported its effects on skin barrier function (15)(16)(17)(18). During those studies, we postulated that PC-9S also has a biological effect on epidermal differentiation.…”

Olopatadine Ameliorates Rat Experimental Cutaneous Inflammation by Improving Skin Barrier Function

“…The barrier function in patients with AD is abnormal as evidenced by decreased water content, increased transepidermal water loss (TEWL) leading to decreased skin hydration [4,5] . In addition, it is well known that AD patients are sensitive to irritation from the environment due to abnormal function of the skin barrier [6] .…”

Variation of Skin Surface pH, Sebum Content and Stratum Corneum Hydration with Age and Gender in a Large Chinese Population

“…Development of many pharmaceutical and skin care products has relied upon what is known about these parameters. Finally, measurement of skin capacitance is used to evaluate the efficacy of skin care products in SC hydration, and transepidermal water loss has been used as one of the indicators to assess the therapeutic efficacy and clinical status of some skin disorders [21][22][23][24][25][26] .…”