Ren Hankun, Zha Peina, Liu Yueheng, Zhang Weihong, Meng Hong, Di Taiju
Beijing Academy of TCM Beauty Supplements Co. Ltd, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
J Cosmet Dermatol. 2025 Apr;24(4):e70189. doi: 10.1111/jocd.70189.
Recently, natural plants have been widely developed and applied in moisturizing cosmetics. Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo (D. officinale) is known as one of the "Nine Immortals" of Chinese herbal medicine, whereas Sparassis crispa (Wulf.) Fr. (S. crispa) is known as the "king of mushrooms"; both of which have excellent biological activity.
To explore the effects of D. officinale polysaccharide (DOP) with different molecular weights and S. crispa on the expression of moisturizing-related genes and verify the moisturizing performance of their complex.
PCR was carried out to explore the aquaporin 3 (AQP3), hyaluronic acid synthetase1 (HAS1), HAS2, and HAS3 genes expression. Immunofluorescence (IF) analysis was used to test the protein level expression of hyaluronic acid (HA), AQP3, claudin-1, and filaggrin (FLG) influenced by moisturizing composition in a reconstructed epidermis skin model. The ability of samples to resist cell drying damage was evaluated by a cell drying damage model. Furthermore, this study validated the effect of the compositions during their application in cosmetics through tests of skin moisture content, crow's feet, and skin elasticity.
The results showed that DOP with molecular weights of 100 k-500 kDa (Dalton) had higher effects on AQP3 gene expression compared to that with molecular weights of 10 k-100 kDa and 1 k-10 kDa. Additionally, the extract of S. crispa significantly promoted the expression of HAS1, HAS2, and HAS3 genes, which are genes encoding hyaluronic acid synthesis. In addition, the mRNA and protein expression levels of HA, AQP3, claudin-1, and FLG were significantly increased as a result of the moisturizing composition consisting of DOP (100 k-500 kDa) and S. crispa. The application of the moisturizing composition markedly increased the skin moisture content, improved eye wrinkles, and enhanced skin elasticity.
In summary, our study proved that D. officinale and S. crispa had good moisturizing effects, and as natural plant humectants, they may have broad applications in future moisturizing cosmetics.
近年来，天然植物在保湿化妆品中得到了广泛开发和应用。铁皮石斛被誉为中草药的“九大仙草”之一，而皱盖乌芝被称为“蘑菇之王”；二者均具有出色的生物活性。
探讨不同分子量的铁皮石斛多糖（DOP）和皱盖乌芝对保湿相关基因表达的影响，并验证其复合物的保湿性能。
采用聚合酶链式反应（PCR）检测水通道蛋白3（AQP3）、透明质酸合成酶1（HAS1）、HAS2和HAS3基因的表达。利用免疫荧光（IF）分析在重构表皮皮肤模型中检测受保湿成分影响的透明质酸（HA）、AQP3、闭合蛋白-1和丝聚蛋白（FLG）的蛋白水平表达。通过细胞干燥损伤模型评估样品抵抗细胞干燥损伤的能力。此外，本研究通过检测皮肤水分含量、鱼尾纹和皮肤弹性，验证了这些成分在化妆品中的应用效果。
结果显示，分子量为100k-500kDa（道尔顿）的DOP对AQP3基因表达的影响高于分子量为10k-100kDa和1k-10kDa的DOP。此外，皱盖乌芝提取物显著促进了HAS1、HAS2和HAS3基因的表达，这些基因是编码透明质酸合成的基因。此外，由DOP（100k-500kDa）和皱盖乌芝组成的保湿成分显著提高了HA、AQP3、闭合蛋白-1和FLG的mRNA和蛋白表达水平。保湿成分的应用显著提高了皮肤水分含量，改善了眼部皱纹，并增强了皮肤弹性。
总之，我们的研究证明，铁皮石斛和皱盖乌芝具有良好的保湿效果，作为天然植物保湿剂，它们在未来的保湿化妆品中可能具有广泛的应用前景。
