HAIRLESS mice get fewer wrinkles if they spend time in an oxygen chamber after exposure to UVB.
Shigeo Kawada and colleagues from the University of Tokyo, Japan, exposed mice to UVB from a fluorescent lamp three times a week for five weeks. After each session half the mice spent two hours in a hyperbaric chamber on 90 per cent oxygen, which increased the amount of oxygen dissolved in their blood.
After the trial, the mice on oxygen had fewer wrinkles and less thickening of the epidermis than those who had gone untreated (, ).
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A number of transcription factors 鈥� proteins that bind to specific sections of DNA 鈥� play a role in skin damage, including one which responds to low oxygen levels. The team suggests that when skin is exposed to high-pressure oxygen, it interferes with these pathways, decreasing skin damage. 鈥淏oth UVA and UVB cause skin ageing in humans, but UVA has more influence, so I don鈥檛 think this is hugely relevant to humans,鈥� says dermatologist of the University of Edinburgh, UK.
