Hairless mice have fewer wrinkles if they stay in an oxygen chamber after exposure to ultraviolet radiation, reports the American Journal of Physiology.
Researchers on the Shigeo Kawady team (University of Tokyo) exposed hairless mice to UVB radiation three times a week for five weeks. After each tanning session, half of the mice spent two hours in a hyperbaric chamber where the oxygen concentration was 90 percent. Thanks to the chamber, the oxygen concentration in the blood of rodents increased.
It turned out that the mice exposed to oxygen had fewer wrinkles and their epidermis was less thickened compared to the untreated group.
The destruction of the skin involves many transcription factors – proteins that bind to specific fragments of DNA. It is likely that high oxygen levels interfere with the production of these proteins. However, as experts point out, the results of the research cannot be directly transferred to humans – in their case, UVA ultraviolet is more dangerous than UVB. (PAP)