Night and day use of stabilized retinol plus broad-spectrum SPF 60+ sunscreen provides enhanced broad-spectrum protection of multiple extra-cellular matrix components

Summary: Abstract Body: Retinol, the gold-standard treatment in improving the appearance of aging, helps to clinically delay and reduce signs of skin aging. It has been shown that stabilized retinol formulations can significantly improve numerous signs of photoaging. Additionally, prolonged use of retinol has demonstrated continued improvement as evidenced at the molecular level by an increased expression of type I procollagen, elastin, hyaluronic acid (HA), compared to vehicle in-vitro and in-vivo. Moreover, chronic sun exposure causes photoaging and sunscreens have been shown to provide photo-protection. In this study, skin explants were pre-treated with: (1) a stabilized retinol formulation alone or (2) a PM/AM regimen with a stabilized retinol formulation (PM) followed by SPF60+ sunscreen (AM) before daily UVA+B exposure for 7 days. Explants were assessed for 6 extra-cellular matrix (ECM) components involved in skin aging appearance. As expected, UV treatment caused significant reduction of collagen type 1, 3, 4, elastin and HA, and stimulated matrix metalloproteinase-1. Retinol application protected significantly against UV-induced deleterious effects on all 6 ECM components. Importantly, combined daily use of stabilized retinol (PM) and sunscreen SPF60+ (AM) showed enhanced protection of all 6 ECM components and was significantly superior to the protection provided by retinol treatment alone. This study demonstrated that the combined use of AM broad-spectrum sunscreen SPF60+ with a PM retinol results in enhanced protection of multiple ECM components to protect against skin aging and photodamage and provides further evidence for recommendation of daily use of SPF and retinol regimen as part of a skincare routine Wen-Hwa Li¹, Tatiana Luts¹, Mark Benn¹, Joshua D. Williams¹, Susan Daly¹, Katrina Bernhardt¹, Ramine Parsa¹ 1. Kenvue Inc, Skillman, NJ, United States. UV Biology/Injury and Non-melanoma Cancers