Common whitening ingredients glutathione

In many countries and cultures, fair and flawless skin is often the standard of beauty, especially for people of color, making skin whitening products a huge growth market. This has led to a large number of skin whitening products, whether topically or orally, flooding the market.

What is glutathione?

Glutathione (GSH) is a common antioxidant in the human body and one of the common skin whitening agents in the cosmetics industry. It is a low molecular weight thiol tripeptide composed of three amino acids: glutamic acid, cysteine, and glycine.

In the human body, glutathione exists in two forms: reduced and oxidized glutathione (GSSG), which can easily be converted into each other. GSH can eliminate harmful free radicals or lipid peroxides in organisms, converting them into fatty acids and water, while GSH is oxidized to GSSG.

Studies have shown that supplementing reduced glutathione (GSH, 500 mg/day) has whitening effects on humans.

Glutathione has a regulatory effect on melanin production, while antioxidants generally have a protective effect on the aging process. The "dual" anti melanin production and anti-aging properties demonstrated by Watanabe's research are not surprising.

In fact, the relationship between blackening and aging has been studied in animal models.

Glutathione can directly or indirectly affect skin pigmentation by inhibiting tyrosinase activity during melanin formation.

Direct inactivation is achieved by binding to the active site of enzymes containing copper ions, while indirect inactivation eliminates free radicals and peroxides through antioxidant methods.

During the formation of melanin, glutathione converts eumelanin into pan melanin and regulates the decolorization of melanin cytotoxic substances.

Whether exposed to sunlight or not, it can systematically convert true melanin into pan melanin, however, subjective evaluations only show mild to moderate whitening effects.

Wahab et al. believe that the combination of local and oral glutathione may have a better skin whitening effect than local or oral glutathione monotherapy.

At the same time, glutathione can eliminate oxygen free radicals and ensure the integrity of cell membranes, effectively regulating hormone levels, maintaining a good endocrine and metabolic environment in the body, and facilitating the rapid fading of pigmentation and the reduction of pigmentation area.

Glutathione also has a tendency to improve skin wrinkles, skin elasticity, and UV spots.

More and more studies have shown that altering the glutathione antioxidant system is associated with various forms of programmed cell death in cancer cells, playing a key role in various forms of programmed cell death, including apoptosis, necrosis, ferroptosis, and autophagy.

Glutathione depletion increases the susceptibility of cancer cells to various forms of programmed cell death and sensitivity to chemotherapy. These studies provide possibilities for new cancer treatment methods based on redox systems.

reference

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