Imedeen Prime RenewalTM In-Vitro Study
In Spring 2004, the team of Dr. Odile Damour in HÔPITAL ÉDOUARD HERRIOT in Lyon, France, conducted a detailed study aimed to examine the effect of Imedeen Prime Renewal active ingredients on skin cells and skin structure using 3-D in-vitro reconstructed skin equivalents (SE).

Methods
SE composed of all vital skin layers (dermis, epidermis and stratum corneum) were generated in the laboratory. Skin fibroblasts used for generation of SE were obtained from a young and an aged female volunteer. Forty-eight SE were treated with Imedeen Prime Renewal active ingredients. A control group of another 48 SE was cultured in parallel without treatment.

Collagen type I, fibrillin and elastin are proteins that are important for formation of the dermis. These proteins are first synthesized by dermal cell fibroblasts and then released from the cells and arranged (deposited) in the dermal extracellular matrix.

Results
Overall effect on epidermis
Examination of the SE organization showed that Imedeen Prime Renewal (IPR) improved the structure of the epidermis in SE. The effect was more pronounced in SE with aged fibroblasts. The IPR-treated epidermis consisted of a higher number of well-organized layers of keratinocytes as compared to untreated samples.

In the image above, the difference in dermal density between IPR-treated versus untreated control samples was more pronounced in SE generated with aged fibroblasts.

Collagen type I is the major collagen type in human skin and is responsible for the tensile strength of the skin.

In the image above. IPR increased production and deposition of colllagen type I (green staining) in SE with both young and aged fibroblasts. The difference between IPR-treated versus untreated control samples was more pronounced in SE generated with aged fibroblasts.

In the image above, staining with keratinocytes growth marker (red spots) showed an equal level in SE with young fibroblasts irrespective of the IPR treatment. SE with aged fibroblasts showed very little staining in control samples. IPR treatment increased the number of keratinocytes stained with growth marker nine times, thereby restoring this number to the level in SE with young fibroblasts.

Conclusion
The results proved conclusively that Imedeen Prime Renewal treatment had multiple noticeable effects on the epidermis and the dermis of cultured SE. The effect was more prominent in SE prepared from aged fibroblasts as compared to SE with fibroblasts obtained from the young donor. The treatment seemed to improve the age-related changes in the dermis and the epidermis in the direction of what was observed in SE prepared from young fibroblasts. The most important effects were increased synthesis and deposition of collagen type 1 and fibrillin in the dermis, as well as stimulation of keratinocyte growth and maintenance of well-structured epidermis.