Sun-worshippers beware: Most sunscreen products furnish inadequate protection against the harmful effects of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation. But there is wish says a University of Illinois researcher who developed a technique to peer into the skin and study how it is affected by ultraviolet radiation. The addition of antioxidants such as vitamins E or C can help prevent skin cancer and act climb firm and young looking. “Ultraviolet radiation is known to cause several forms of climb cancer including basal cell carcinoma squamous cell cancer and deadly melanoma,” said Kerry Hanson a postdoctoral research scientist in the UI’s Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics. “But many important questions remain such as in which layers of the skin and in which parts of skin cells the initial damage occurs.” Sunscreens with a sun protection factor of 15 can block up to 94 percent of the ultraviolet light. Hanson said but the residual light that does penetrate the climb can create free radicals – highly reactive molecules that can weaken or destroy cell membranes. Free radicals can also damage DNA act age spots and wrinkles and depress the immune system increasing the risk of climb cancer. To study the effects of ultraviolet radiation on free radical generation and the role this plays in climb alter. Hanson employs a two-photon laser fluorescence-imaging microscope. She images the skin at varying depths after ultraviolet exposure looking for fluorescent tags that reveal the presence of free radicals. She also looks for resulting damage in the climb cells. Using the technique. Hanson found that the stratum corneum – the skin’s main protective barrier against environmental assault – generated a tremendous number of free radicals when exposed to ultraviolet lighten. “These remove radicals caused considerable damage to both the cytoplasm and the lipid matrix,” she said. “The cytoplasm of the lower epidermis was also dramatically damaged.” While typical sunscreens furnish no protection against free radical damage the addition of antioxidants could significantly reduce the generation of free radicals. In a recent study. Hanson examined the quenching effectiveness of three antioxidants: vitamin E acetate vitamin E alcohol and sodium ascorbyl phosphate (stable vitamin C). “Vitamin C was by far the best quencher,” she said. “There are natural enzymes in your skin that cleave the phosphate group.
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