Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CITYCARE (Impact of air pollutants on cutaneous responses in both healthy and compromised skin barrier, and innovative solutions to protect skin against urban pollution)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2019-09-01 do 2021-08-31
The CITYCARE project aimed at better understanding the effects of air pollutants on both skin barrier integrity and function by investigating the synergistic effects of air pollutants such as ozone, cigarette smoke and diesel exhaust with UV radiation. Since the percentage of the world’s population being urban is continuously increasing, there is an urgent need to protect every single city dweller from urban pollution. Although the use of sunscreens in skin care formulations provides an essential protection against the cutaneous damages caused by UV radiation, there was at the time of the project not a single class of compounds that were identified to protect skin against the whole spectrum of environmental stressors. For this reason, an important part of the project included the study and the testing of innovative solutions to protect skin against those air pollutants using both antioxidant compounds and film forming polymers as protective approaches.
Besides the reproducibility and the overall morphology of the RhE models, also their responsiveness to different stimuli was investigated. In this way, the correct positive controls for assays to study the cytotoxicity, mitochondrial activity, tissue integrity and pro-inflammatory response were determined. After establishing relevant human epidermal models, exposure conditions to the several air pollutants were optimized. Additional studies were carried out to gain a deeper understanding about how these pollutants, combined or not with solar radiation, affect the skin.
The protection benefits of well-know antioxidant compounds as well as technologies under-development were evaluated mainly using 2D cell cultures of human keratinocytes.
More than 12 review and research papers were published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In addition, PhD fellows have shared their project results through the participation to more than 10 international conferences and to scientific workshops and seminars organized by the consortium.
Air pollutants of main health concern include ozone, diesel particles and cigarette smoke. Therefore, three exposure systems were designed in order to mimic the human exposure in the most realistic conditions. Using the same RhE, a comparison between the post-exposure biological responses to the different air pollutants was possible.
The results of the action provided a a better understanding of the cutaneous toxicity induced by three main air pollutants combined or not with solar irradiation, and of the protection benefits of antioxidant compounds used by the cosmetic industry for skin care applications.
Finally, the project contributed to increasing the awareness of urban citizens about the involvement of air pollution in the development or exacerbation of skin diseases.