In many countries and cultures, fair and flawless skin is often the standard of beauty, especially for people of color, making skin lightening products a huge demand. glutathione
Let’s find out about skin lightening products, whether topical or oral, what their ingredients are, and how to achieve the desired results.
glutathione (GSH) is found in human cells and is one of the body’s strongest endogenous antioxidants. It is also an important cosmetic skin lightening agent.
It is a low molecular weight mercaptan tripeptide composed of three amino acids, glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine (see Figure 1).
In the human body, glutathione exists in two forms, oxidized glutathione (GSSG), which can easily converted into each other.
GSH removes harmful free radicals or lipid peroxides from organisms,
converting them to fatty acids and water, while GSH oxidized to GSSG (see Figure 2).
Studies have shown that supplementation with reduced glutathione (GSH, 500 mg/day) has a whitening effect on the skin.
At the same time, GSH has a regulatory effect on melanin production, and antioxidants in general have a protective effect on the aging process,
so the “dual” anti-melanin and anti-aging properties demonstrated by Watanabe’s study are not surprising.
In fact, the link between blackening and aging has been studied in animal models.
The action mechanism of GSH is that it can directly or indirectly affect the overall pigmentation by inhibiting the activity of tyrosinase during the formation of melanin.
Direct inactivation achieved by binding to the active site of an enzyme containing copper ions,
while indirect inactivation achieved by eliminating free radicals and peroxides by antioxidant means.
During the formation of melanin, GSH converts eumelanin to panmelanin and regulates the decolorization of melanocyte toxic substances.
It can systematically convert true melanin to panmelanin regardless of whether it exposed to sunlight,
however, subjective evaluations have only shown a mild to moderate whitening effect.
Wahab et al. suggest that a combination of topical and oral glutathione may have a better skin whitening effect than topical or oral GSH monotherapy.
Glutathione action
- antioxidant
- detoxify
- Liver protection
- Delay skin aging
- pigmentation
At the same time, glutathione has an extraordinary role in body regulation,
glutathione can remove oxygen free radicals and ensure the integrity of cell membranes,
so as to effectively regulate hormone levels and maintain a good endocrine metabolism environment.
It is beneficial to the health of the body, and quickly dilute the color of the stain and reduce the area of the stain. In addition, glutathione also has a tendency to improve skin wrinkles, skin elasticity, and UV spots.
“Glutathione” is the main antioxidant of human cells, and glutathione plays an important role in maintaining human health and preventing disease.
More and more studies have shown that altering the glutathione antioxidant system associated with multiple forms of programmed cell death in cancer cells,
playing a key role in multiple forms of programmed cell death.
Glutathione depletion increases the susceptibility of cancer cells to various forms of programmed cell death and their sensitivity to chemotherapy.
These studies offer the possibility of new cancer treatments based on REDOX systems.
