Topical glutathione amino acid precursors protect skin against environmental and oxidative stress

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Glutathione in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Determine whether GAP can boost GSH levels and provide skin protection against stressors.

Why It Was Studied

Although glutathione (GSH) has long been considered a master antioxidant, poor stability and bioavailability limit its application in skin protection.

Who Took Part

The study group was 21 subjects.

PubMed tags the participants as women only.

Normal human epidermal keratinocytes were treated with GAP, with or without stressors, namely, menadione, blue light or pollutants.

A placebo-controlled clinical study was conducted on 21 female subjects who received product applications and subsequent UV radiation.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this Glutathione study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Glutathione group a baseline to be compared against.

Ascorbic acid was used as a benchmark.

The levels of GSH, glutathione disulfide (GSSG), adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were quantified.

Tape strip samples were collected from the subjects for GSH and GSSG quantification using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS).

The UV-protective effect of GAP was investigated using ex vivo skin.

Biomarkers related to DNA damage and the skin barrier were analysed using immunohistochemistry.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Glutathione Disulfide, Amino Acids, Reactive Oxygen Species, Chromatography, Liquid, Vitamin K 3, Tandem Mass Spectrometry and Glutathione.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Glutathione in 21 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 7 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2024 (Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology : JEADV), a journal based in England.

More context: the Glutathione compound page, all human trials.