Aquaporins – What are they and why my skin loves them?

Skin moisturisation can have various forms. It’s obvious that you should drink a bottle of mineral water a day and hydrate your skin in all possible ways. It’s especially important during the summer because water has the tendency towards excessive evaporation form body.

You need to know that the right content of water in a human organism equals 50% in dermis and 10% for epidermis. It’s quite a lot but remember that TEWL (Transepidermal Water Loss) process is fast and it’s easy to dehydrate skin, unfortunately. Therefore, you need to continuously give your skin something to drink and provide your organism with the right level of moisturisation. While discussing this subject, it’s worth mentioning that in order to protect our organism against intensive water loss, our body is equipped with a natural hydrolipid barrier and a factor named as NMF (Natural Moisturizing Factor) – it absorbs water and doesn’t let it ‘run away’ form the organism. However, you have to bear in mind that NMF doesn’t sometimes have the possibility or power to maintain the right level of moisturisation. Therefore, it’s crucial to DELIVER WATER CONTINOUSLY. For that reason, even people with oily complexion should remember to apply moisturising cosmetics. Obviously, this kind of products are equally important for combination or acne skin type. Another essential point to mention is that contrary to popular believes, moisturising cosmetics don’t hydrate skin. What they do is limiting water evaporation. How is it possible? There a few methods. The ingredients included in moisturising creams can, for example:

• create a hygroscopic layer on the skin surface which increases water absorption and counteracts its loss (this kind of layer is created by hyaluronic acid, for example)
• supply skin with the right molecules which are able to rebuild the protective skin barrier (in this case the best products to fulfil the task are natural oils, which are irreparable in taking care of skin and hair)
• increase the number of mysterious aquaporins and stimulate them to intensified work

Aquaporins – What’s their mission in skin moisturising process?

Aquaporins were discovered in the 1950s by Peter Agre. It was him who noticed canals in dermis, the ones which transport water. He gave them the name of aquaporins and in 2003 revived Nobel Prise for this game-changing discovery. He proved that the level of hydration is strictly connected with the number of aquaporins. The more dermis has them, the better moisturised it is.

The good news is that some substances are able to influence the development of new aquaporins. These substances are pomegranate extract, caffeine, ginseng, glycerine glucoside, green tea, most vitamins and apple extract, to name just a few. These are the very ingredients which are worth looking for while choosing a face cream. In other words, try to buy the products that encourage creation of aquaporins. Personally, I use a moisturising cream for oily skin, and, additionally, I apply natural oil. Thanks to this, I provide my face skin with the moisturisation and… I take a good care of my aquaporins 🙂