A baby spends nine months soaking inside a womb. While it lives in a watery and warm environment, it still manages to develop skin fully equipped for protection in a cold, dry, bacteria infected world.
The reason is a protective layer of cream called Vernix caseosa (VC). VC covers the fetus, providing "waterproofing" in utero, allowing skin to grow in wet conditions. It is also present in newborn babies, hydrating and cleaning the skin and is also known for its healing powers when applied to ulcers.
Prof. Joke Bouwstra and her colleague Robert Rissman are specialists in skin barrier and their synthesis at Leiden University. The duo is out to study VC in detail. In a bid to mimic the versatile substance, the team has produced an artificial version of the natural buttery ointment with the same unique properties.
Like most moisturizing creams, VC is mostly water. To obtain its outstanding properties, the exact composition of the mixture is important. What sets it apart from other creams is that its content contains an additional 10 percent of lipid molecules and dead skin cells called corneocytes.
Added to this is lanolin, a readily available natural source similar to fat molecules found in sheep’s wool. Lanolin is used as skin treatment by nursing mothers. Other components included, fatty acids, ceramides and cholesterol with particles made of water storing hydrogel.
According to reports in the New Scientist magazine, artificial VC helps sufferers of skin disease as well as pre-term babies develop essential protection against temperature changes, dehydration and infection.
The success of the formula for the cream was confirmed by an experiment conducted on mice. According to Bouwstra, when the white cream was rubbed on mice, missing a patch of outer skin, the animals healed almost three times faster than their counterparts which went without the same treatment.
An article on how the researchers made the ointment has been published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.
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