ACTIVATION OF SKIN CELLS BY INORGANIC-COM POUNDS

It has been known that the stimulation of skin cells by physiologicall y active substances is accompanied by the quantitative and qualitative alterations of the glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in skin. This phenomenon make it possible to evaluate the activity of test substances for the stimulation of skin cells. The purpose of our study is to elucidate th e effectiveness of inorganic compounds for the stimulation of skin cel ls. (1) The cultured skin cells including keratinocytes and fibroblast s, (2) the cultured model skin constituted of collagen gel, fibroblast s and keratinocytes, and (3) the mouse damaged skin were used in the p resent study. The results obtained from these studies demonstrate that inorganic substances commonly have a possibility to activate cyclic A MP-dependent protein kinase (A-kinase), and the A-kinase activation re sults in an increase in GAGs. These findings brought the scientific ba sis for the effectiveness of the Japanese traditional balneotherapy fo r damaged skin.