Tailored Skincare Enabled by Understanding Skin Chemistry Using Mass Spectrometry Imaging

在西方世界，皮肤研究和局部产品开发通常集中在有限年龄范围内的高加索皮肤的需求上。因此，迫切需要进行研究，以更好地了解所有种族和年龄组的皮肤的独特要求，以更好地实现化妆品和药物局部产品的开发。（即3D OrbiSIMS -由诺丁汉大学和Walgreens Boots Alliance开创的研究）已经允许对基本皮肤化学和相对高质量低浓度局部护肤剂的渗透进行前所未有的化学洞察（Starr et.（Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America）2022）。例如，我们已经说明了以前仅推测的从真皮到角质层的胆固醇硫酸盐循环。本项目将利用这种方法，通过对代表不同生命阶段和种族的志愿者进行体内胶带取样，了解角质层（皮肤渗透的主要屏障）的化学结构。这些发现将阐明皮肤最外层的化学成分如何随着这些分组而变化，从而深入了解不同皮肤类型的化学结构，并潜在地了解皮肤老化的化学影响。这项研究的结果将用于为特定皮肤类型量身定制护肤品配方，数据将用于化妆品和药物的局部研究。该项目将涉及胶带剥离（体内）和渗透测试，随后使用3D OrbiSIMS和其他质谱方法（包括基质辅助激光解吸/电离（MALDI）和液相色谱-质谱（LC-MS））进行评估。

n the Western world skin research and topical product development is often focussed on the needs of Caucasian skin within limited age ranges. There is therefore a pressing need for research to better understand the unique requirements of skin from all ethnicities and age groups to better enable both cosmetic and pharmaceutical topical product development.Recent developments in mass spectrometry (namely 3D OrbiSIMS - with research pioneered by The University of Nottingham and Walgreens Boots Alliance) have allowed an unprecedented chemical insight into fundamental skin chemistry and the permeation of relatively high mass low concentration topical skincare agents (Starr et. al. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) 2022). For example we have illustrated the previously only speculated cholesterol sulphate cycle from the dermis to the stratum corneum. This methodology will be exploited in this project to understand the chemical structure of the stratum corneum (the main barrier to skin permeation) using in vivo tape-strip sampling from volunteers representing different life stages and ethnicities. The findings will elucidate how this outermost skin layer varies chemically with these groupings giving insight into the chemical structure of different skin types as well as potentially understanding the chemical impact of aging within skin.The findings from this research will be used to enable skincare formulating, tailored to perform for specific skin types and the data will be available to cosmetic and pharmaceutical topical research. The project will involve tape-strip (in vivo) and permeation testing with subsequent evaluation using 3D OrbiSIMS and other mass spectrometry approaches including matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS).