A new research has identified a chemical antioxidant that shows potential in slowing or reverse several signs of aging on people. The researchers said that it is a common, inexpensive, and safe antioxidant that could help in slowing the aging process in human skin.
In the study published in Scientific Reports titled "Anti-Aging Potentials of Methylene Blue for Human Skin Longevity," researchers from the University of Maryland has identified the chemical antioxidant known as methylene blue. According to the researchers, methylene blue showed potential in slowing or even reversing several signs of aging when tested on cultured human skin cells and simulated skin tissue.
In order to test its capabilities as an effective antioxidant, researchers tested methylene blue on skin cells from a healthy middle-aged donor and people diagnosed with progeria. Progeria is a rare genetic disease that accelerates the normal aging process for over four weeks.
According to an article published by Medical Xpress, researchers of the study tried other three antioxidants: N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine, or NAC, MitoQ and MitoTEMPO, or mTEM. But in their experiment, methylene blue performed better chemical antioxidant compared to the other tested antioxidants at improving age-related symptoms in cells from the participants.
"Our work suggests that methylene blue could be a powerful antioxidant for use in skin care products," Kan Cao said in their study. Cao, who serves as one of the writers of this study, is also an associate professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at UMD.
He also said that the effects of methylene blue as an antioxidant are more fundamental and has long-term changes to skin cells. Moreover, Cao said that the effects that they saw are not temporary.
Researchers also used a simulated human skin in a 3D-model of living skin cells for more experiments in order to test the safety of cosmetic creams with methylene blue. Besides being an effective antioxidant, researchers also concluded that methylene blue would not cause irritation on the skin.
