Diabetic skin: A new target for cosmetic products

The increasing life expectation will cause a significant increase in diabetes in near future. Diabetes can affect the whole body including the skin. Skin problems in diabetic patients should be addressed to avoid long term serious consequences. Such treatments could be based on special cosmetic products leading to a new market for the industry. The 3 main problems in diabetic skin are: 1. Extremely dry and irritated skin with a reduced barrier function. 2. Skin with a reduced wound healing property and 3. A desensitization of the skin. The biochemical root of cause is the high glucose level in the skin leading to the so called: advanced glycation end-products (AGEs). This crosslinking of long-living proteins with sugar molecules such as collagen reduces the elasticity of the skin. In addition, these AGEs also bind to RAGE receptors leading to chronic inflammation. A third important fact is the disrupted calcium gradient in the epidermis which is responsible for the reduced barrier function in diabetic skin but also in very aged skin. In this work we introduce a novel calcium double cone delivery system to regenerate the calcium gradient.