Epidermal hyaluronic acid: a new look at hydration

 By developing Hydranov, a high technological furcellaran concentrate, Codif Recherche et Nature is targeting epidermal hyaluronic acid to generate an overall hydra-restructuring effect and a greatly enhanced hyaluronic-like result.

Epidermal hyaluronic acid: a still overlooked potential

The rate of hyaluronic synthesis is higher in the epidermis than in the dermis. Since the dermis is much thicker than the epidermis, it contains four to nine times more hyaluronic acid, but in 1991 Tammy et al1 showed that for equivalent tissue quantities, the epidermis synthesises four times more hyaluronic acid than the dermis. In the epidermis, hyaluronic acid is localised in the intercellular space of the basal and spinous layers. In the same way as in the dermis the hygroscopic properties of hyaluronic acid are of great importance in hydrating the deep layers of the epidermis, but its function goes further than conventional hydration. It has been shown that the presence of high concentrations of hyaluronic acid in the intercellular space tends to destabilise desmosomes and the adherens junctions, obliging them to renew regularly and so reorganise the keratinocytes not only within the basal layer, but also throughout the process of differentiation as far as the stratum corneum.2 It might be thought then that an excessive accumulation of hyaluronic acid in the intercellular spaces would lead to complete destructuring of the epidermis but as opposed to the dermis, in the epidermis, hyaluronic acid is quickly metabolised with a half life of 24 hours thus preventing any excess build-up.2 Hyaluronic acid acts therefore like an overall epidermal restructuring agent by initiating and maintaining constant cellular remodelling from the basal layer to the cornified layer. At the present time, natural moisturising factors (NMF) are the molecules which are the most targeted in epidermal hydration strategies but their localisation in the stratum corneum means that hydration of the entire epidermis cannot be assured. On the other hand, epidermal hyaluronic acid possesses a potential which has been underused up to now. It is a fully hydrarestructuring agent and one of the only molecules able to generate global hydration of the epidermis. In view of these factors, Codif Recherche et Nature has developed a concentrate of sodium oligofurcellaran with hyaluronic acid-like and hyaluronic acid activator properties, called Hydranov. The oligofurcellaran is obtained using a unique depolymerisation process: subcritical CO2 depolymerisation in anhydrous conditions. In the same way as hyaluronic acid, Hydranov has hygroscopic properties which enable water molecules to be captured at the surface of the skin but it also stimulates epidermal hyaluronic acid synthesis for total restructuring and hydration of the epidermis. Finally, a clinical study shows superior and faster hydrating action by Hydranov than from hyaluronic acid.