X-Message-Number: 23792
Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 21:14:40 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: reversing skin aging with fucose

Pathol Biol (Paris). 2003 Dec;51(10):586-90
Effect of a fucose-rich polysaccharide preparation on the age-dependent
evolution of the skin surface micro-relief.

  It was demonstrated previously that the evaluation of the
microdepressionary skin surface relief by semi-automated computerised
morphometry enables the determination of several of its geometrical
parameters, such as, the average number of polygons in a given
microscopic field, and/or the average surface of the polygons. Using this
procedure, it could be shown in a study on about 100 persons, males and
females, aged from 6 months to 89 years that these parameters undergo
age-related alterations. These alterations are faster at younger ages,
slow down at middle ages and accelerate after 50-60 years again. Taken at
a sun-protected site, the interior face of the forearm, close to the
elbow, this test reflects the effect of chronological ageing of the skin
surface micro-relief. In the present work we tested the effect of a
preparation containing a fucose-rich polysaccharide as active
principle on the microdepressionary skin surface micro-relief evaluated
by a morphometric method, comparing results before treatment and after 4
weeks of treatment. We could demonstrate on 20 female volunteers, aged
from 39 to 71 years, that after 4 weeks of treatment with the
abovementioned preparation there was a significant improvement of the skin
surface relief, as shown by the displacement of geometrical
characteristics of 17 treated skins out of 20, towards a "younger"
pattern, as for instance the increase of the average number of polygons
in a given microscopic field. This improvement was less than 15% of the
untreated value for two persons, and more than 15% for 15 women out of
20. The average improvement was 37.16%, and for the 15 persons showing
more than 15% improvement, it was nearly 50%, corresponding to a decrease
of apparent age by 10-15 years. These results suggest that a treatment
with the fucose-rich polysaccharide preparation can slow down human skin
ageing and even can reverse age-dependent skin alterations.

Biomed Pharmacother. 2003 Jul-Aug;57(5-6):209-15.
Effect of L-fucose and fucose-rich oligo- and polysaccharides (FROP-s) on
skin aging: penetration, skin tissue production and fibrillogenesis.

  Skin thickness is decreasing with age. This loss concerns both dermis
and epidermis, cells and extracellular matrix. We could show here that
percutaneous application of an L-fucose-containing preparation produced
an increase of skin thickness and a densification of collagen bundles. We
also could show that 3H-L-fucose penetrates in the dermis, a prerequisite
for the above mentioned favorable pharmacological activities. These
results, together with the previous favorable activities on the
downregulation of matrix-degrading enzymes, free radical scavenging and
increased cell proliferation confirm the favorable action of fucose and
fucose-rich polysaccharides (FROP-s) on the skin by slowing down its
aging.

Biomed Pharmacother. 2004 Mar;58(2):123-8.
Effect of L-fucose and fucose-rich polysaccharides on elastin
biosynthesis, in vivo and in vitro.

 With increasing age elastic fibres in human skin are progressively lysed
and skin elasticity is also decreasing. Still there is an age-dependent
increase of elastic fibre surface density, mostly due to an alteration of
the fibres. The present experiments were undertaken to explore if
L-fucose and fucose-rich polysaccharides (FROP-s) could influence elastin
biosynthesis. We show here, that topical application of a
fucose-containing preparation to the skin of hairless rats increased
after 4 weeks the elastic fibre surface density by about 40%, shown by
quantitative morphology. Using human skin fibroblasts in explant cultures,
the addition of L-fucose or of FROP-3 increased the biosynthesis of
immunoprecipitable tropoelastin by about 40%. No increase was found
however of desmosine-isodesmosine in skin explant cultures after 72 h of
incubation. The effect of L-fucose and FROP-3 on the
biosynthesis of collagen and non-collagen proteins excreted by the skin
explant cultures was also investigated. L-Fucose, but not FROP-3,
decreased collagen biosynthesis but both increased non-collagen protein
biosynthesis. These results show that L-fucose and FROP-3 stimulate
tropoelastin biosynthesis in vitro, and elastic fibre formation in vivo.
This stimulation concerns also several non-collagen proteins secreted by
skin explant cultures. Elastic fibre formation necessitates the
simultaneous synthesis of several microfibrillar glycoproteins as well as
of tropoelastin. The increased elastic fibre density in the in vivo
experiments suggests that this is indeed achieved by L-fucose and FROP-3,
further demonstrating their efficiency in the control of age-dependent
modifications of connective tissues in general and of skin in particular.

Biomed Pharmacother. 2003 May-Jun;57(3-4):130-3.
Protection by L-fucose and fucose-rich polysaccharides against
ROS-produced cell death in presence of ascorbate.

  It was shown previously, that millimolar concentrations of ascorbate
have cytotoxic and anti-proliferative effects (Eur. J. Clin. Invest. 32
(2002) 372). With increasing concentrations of ascorbate an increasing
number of fibroblasts was detached from the culture dish and shown to be
lysed by the effect of ascorbate-induced generation of reactive oxygen
species (ROS-s). It also could be shown, that this cytotoxic effect is
partly due to the dose-dependent inhibition by ascorbate of fibronectin
biosynthesis. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase were shown to
salvage cells from ROS-induced cell-death by preventing the inhibition of
fibronectin biosynthesis. We used this model system to test the
cyto-protective effect of L-fucose and fucose-rich oligo- and
polysaccharides (FROP-s). It appeared that relatively low concentrations
of L-fucose and FROP-3 (Biomed. Pharmacother. in press)
could efficiently protect fibroblasts from the ascorbate-induced
cell-death. These novel pharmacological properties of L-fucose and FROP-3
might well be related to their accelerating effect of wound healing.

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