244 Comprehensive Approach to Addressing Skin Inflammaging

Abstract

One of skin’s major functions is to serve as a protective barrier to our environment. The skin is exposed to many external aggressors on a daily basis, including but not limited to, various wavelengths of light (UV, blue light, IR, etc.), thermal flux, and pollution (particulates, ozone, etc.). Over the past few decades, environmental exposures have been extensively studied and coined the “exposome.” The skin exposome, which comprises the total daily exposure that our skin endures, can lead to damaging inflammatory cascades within the skin. These inflammatory cascades can be activated by various alarmins such as key inflammatory mediators (e.g. IL-1α) as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS). Alarmins perpetuate a strong inflammatory cascade, which can ultimately result in neutrophil and macrophage recruitment and lead to damaged extracellular matrix structures and appearing, over time, as visible lines, wrinkles, loss of firmness, and sagging. Furthermore, inflammation can induce other visible issues such as redness and hyperpigmentation. While many cosmetic ingredients address phases 1 (initiation) and 2 (activation) of inflammation, this approach is limited in scope as it does not address the third phase of inflammation (resolution). In fact, it was relatively recently discovered that the skin can actively resolve inflammation during the resolution phase, whereby the skin produces specific mediators that help to resolve inflammation. The resolution phase utilizes lipid mediators which act to coordinate the resolution of inflammation. Here, we propose a novel technique to more comprehensively address exposome-induced “inflammaging” (inflammation- induced aging) using botanical and other powerful active ingredients which work in combination to target each phase of inflammation, and formulate them with the appropriate systems to ensure delivery to skin. Finally, we employ an innovative combination of ingredients to address skin’s own natural resolution process via boosting the production of specialized pro-resolution mediators (maresins and lipoxins).