Nutraceuticals and the Skin: Roles in Health and Disease

Dear Colleagues,

The skin is the largest organ of the body and serves as a barrier between the inner and external environments. As such, any problems in the skin can have serious effects on systemic health and well-being. Several studies have established that both nutritional and dietary factors play an important role in the maintenance of the normal skin integrity, where they can execute a causative, preventative and/or treatment role in a number of skin related conditions. Nutritional factors have been studied for their involvement in skin ageing, acne, inflammation and several chronic immune-mediated disorders such as atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, diabetes, obesity, wounds and various types of skin cancer. The skin condition, in turn, can affect nutritional choices and subsequent nutritional and health status.

There are a multitude of mechanisms by which nutraceuticals can counteract adverse skin conditions. Consumption of a diet rich in nutrients and vitamins (nutraceuticals and antioxidants), particularly those derived from fruits and vegetables, not only supports health in general, but also skin maintenance and repair in particular. Epidemiological evidence links consumption of these diets with prevention and mitigation of disease progression. For example, nutraceuticals with anti-oxidative or metal chelating properties are being actively evaluated as natural tools to modulate, prevent or inhibit oxidative processes or modulate advanced glycation end products (AGEs), but many other properties of dietary compounds with relevance to skin remain to be characterized.

For this Special Issue of Nutrients, we invite the submission of manuscripts either describing original research, or reviewing scientific literature examining the role of diets and/or specific nutraceuticals in the prevention and treatment of skin disorders. We welcome submissions that discuss how nutraceuticals act via antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative and other cellular actions to prevent or ameliorate disease processes. In particular, we encourage submission of studies that contain a detailed assessment of the molecular mechanisms of action of dietary compounds in the treatment of skin ageing, acne, inflammation, and chronic diseases like atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, diabetes, wounds and various types of skin cancer.

We look forward to your submissions.

Dr. Jean Christopher Chamcheu
Dr. Deeba Nadeem Syed
Dr. G Kerr Whitfield
Guest Editors

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