Prevention of polymorphic light eruption by oral administration of a nutritional supplement containing lycopene, β-carotene, and Lactobacillus johnsonii: results from a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded study.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Carotenoids.

Polymorphic light eruption (PLE) is the most common photodermatosis.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 60 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as teenagers, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

In this randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded study, 60 PLE patients were supplemented with the nutritional supplement or placebo.

Skin biopsies were taken before and after supplementation from unexposed and exposed skin, and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) mRNA expression was assessed by real-time polymerase chain reaction.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Carotenoids and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Carotenoids, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some patients received a placebo instead of Carotenoids, giving a reference point.

Skin lesions were evaluated using a PLE score.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Carotenoids, Dietary Supplements, Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1, Lactobacillus, Lycopene, Photosensitivity Disorders and Radiation-Protective Agents.

The authors tagged it with the keywords ICAM-1, polymorphic light eruption, systemic photoprotection and β-carotene.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Carotenoids in 60 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2014 (Photodermatology, photoimmunology & photomedicine), a journal based in England.

More context: all human trials.