Dicembre Vol.3 N° 3 - 2007 - Salute per tutti

A. Sparavigna A, R. Forte, F.S. Dioguardiprovide ground substance enrichment and deephydration of the skin, but they also strongly stimulatefibroblasts to sinthetize new groundsubstance (4). Moreover, recent publicationshave suggested the possible positive role of thecurrent greater availability of specific aminoacidmixtures as substrates to collagen syntheticpathways in human organs (5-7). Collagen hasa complex molecular structure, due to its particularlyregular aminoacidic content. Althoughthere are several different collagen types, ineach type every third aminoacid one is glycine,the smallest of all aminoacids. The quite monotonouscomposition of collagen peptides is notonly limited to the highly regular recurrence ofthe glycine residue, but is also present in thefollowing two positions, called positions X andY, where position Y is hydroxyproline (OHpro)in 50% of the cases, and hydroxylisine (OHlys)in most of the remaining sequences. These aminoacidsare very rarely found in proteins otherthan collagen. They are fundamental in a cascadeof events allowing a reaction forming interandintra- molecular bonds strongly entanglingthree peptides into fibrils and firmly tighteningthem into the complex collagen units. Havingone glycine every third aminoacid allows peptidesto bend regularly and form a left-handedhelical structure, entwined with two other peptidesin a super-helical structure twisted to theright, greatly similar to the structure of a rope.This gives extraordinary tensile strength andflexibility to collagen fibers. Based on theabove, a new integrated treatment was prepared,consisting of a specific “aminoacidic functionalcluster” assembled in order to physiologicallypromote local collagen synthesis throughchemotactic stimulus (see Table 1 for the composition)and which includes intradermal injections(injectable aminoacidic mixtures plus lowmolecular weight hyaluronic acid), cosmetictreatment and food supplementation. The presentstudy was performed in order to evaluatethe activity of this integrated treatment on theaging face.aterials and methodsMFive dermatological centers participatedin the study. Investigations were carried outin 103 healthy female volunteers, aged 35 to 60(average age: 47). All the enrolled subjects hadlow to moderate skin ageing/photo-ageing,a c c o rding to a re f e rence photographic scale, andhad given their informed consent. Exclusion criteriawere: pregnancy or lactation, use of permanentfillers in the past, presence of other systemicpathologies, like autoimmune disease, diabetes,liver and renal insuff i c i e n c y, heart failure .Subjects who for any reason had taken drugslike aspirin or other NSAID’s, or systemic cortico s t e roids during the three month preceding thep resent study, were also excluded.The objective of the study was to evaluate thetolerance and efficacy of an intradermal injectableproduct associated to cosmetic treatmentand food supplementation (J a l u p ro ® a n dP ro g l y m e ® , Professional Dietetics s.r.l., Milan,Italy) over a treatment period of twenty-twoweeks. The study was performed according to amulticenter open study protocol, and the treatmentunder investigation was administered asfollows:4 intradermal injections - done directly by participatingdermatologists using the injectableproduct (Jalupro ® ); injections were done once aweek, and the first one was done two weeksafter the basal visits (subjects had already startedto take cosmetic and food supplements twoweeks before).Food supplement - one ampoule/day of aminoacidfood supplement (Proglyme ® , in water orin any other drink) was taken by the subjectsfrom week T-2 to the last intradermal implant,for a total of six weeks.Cosmetic treatment - from T0 to T4: aminoacidcream, applied on the face twice a day (morningand evening) and liquid patch applied twice aweek (30 minutes of setting).T h ree evaluation visits were performed duringthe study: at baseline (T0), 1 month after the lastL-Proline L-Glycine L-Lisine L-LeucineInjectable vials 37,6 50 5,4 7Oral solution 43,8 50 5,2 -Cream 37,6 50 5,4 7Liquid patch 37,6 50 5,4 7Table 1. Aminoacidic composition (%) delivered by tested products.20Journal of Plastic Dermatology 2007; 3, 3