As for many pharmaceutical companies, toxicology evaluation, compound safety assessments, development of specific disease models for cosmetics (specific 3D cell cultures, skin models,…) may be considered as natural fields of cellular metabolism investigations.

A specific insight on oxidative stress impact on skin metabolism

Skin is repetitively exposed to environmental oxidative stress such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation, pollutants, and chemical oxidants leading to premature skin aging. Inside the cutaneous tissue, cellular metabolism and mitochondrial respiration can also result in production of oxidative species and reactive oxygen species (ROS).

Skin possesses various endogenous anti-oxidant systems, such as small molecules or enzymes, but oxidative stress can overwhelm these protective systems. This unbalance will accelerate aging by damaging DNA, proteins, lipids, and other cellular constituents. ROS and other free radicals also affect the regulation of gene transcription.

Precise measurement of all the impact players of oxidative stress and cell antioxidative defenses will offer a global oxidant/anti-oxidant balance overview that will help to evaluate both compound toxicity and efficiency.