Non-invasive method to monitor molecular changes in human stratum corneum during acute barrier disruption using reflectance NIR spectroscopy.

Abstract

Stratum corneum is the outer most part of skin for barrier function. Disorder in stratum corneum is related with many skin diseases including acne, atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. In developed countries, about 20% of the population has disorder in the barrier function of stratum corneum. Adhesive tape stripping is a method to disrupt skin barrier function in studying disorder in stratum corneum. In this study, we obtained NIR (Near-Infrared) spectrum of human skin after tape stripping. Changes in skin spectra after barrier disruption were investigated through principal component analysis (PCA) of spectrum. PCA analysis revealed that peaks for -NH stretching and -CH vibration mainly contributed to the spectral variation caused by barrier disruption. Furthermore, second derivative of spectrum revealed that acute barrier disruption contributes to spectral changes in the region related with secondary structure of protein, lipid and water associated with lipid in stratum corneum. We demonstrated that acute barrier disruption affected features in NIR spectrum. These spectral changes revealed that acute barrier disruption affected keratin protein and ceramide in human stratum corneum. These results suggest that NIR spectroscopy can be used to monitor changes in filamentous network and lamellar structure in stratum corneum. NIR spectroscopy can provide non-invasive method to investigate skin disease related with barrier disruption by monitoring disturbance in protein and lipid structure in stratum corneum.