Research Summary
Aging of skin is an intricate biological process consisting of two types. While intrinsic or chronological aging is an inevitable process, photoaging involves the premature aging of skin due to cumulative exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Chronological and photoaging both have clinically differentiable manifestations. Various natural and synthetic retinoids have been explored for the treatment of aging, and many of them have shown histological and clinical improvement. However, most studies have been conducted on patients presenting with photoaged skin.
Among the retinoids, tretinoin is possibly the most potent and certainly the most widely investigated retinoid for photoaging therapy. Although retinoids show promise in the treatment of skin aging, irritant reactions such as burning, scaling, or dermatitis associated with retinoid therapy limit their acceptance by patients. This issue is more prominent with tretinoin and tazarotene, whereas other retinoids, mainly represented by retinaldehyde and retinol, are considerably less irritating.
To minimize these side effects, various novel drug delivery systems have been developed. In particular, nanoparticles have shown great potential in improving the stability, tolerability, and efficacy of retinoids like tretinoin and retinol. However, more elaborate clinical studies are required to confirm their advantage in the delivery of topical retinoids.
Keywords: photoaging, chronological aging, tretinoin, retinaldehyde, tazarotene, nanoparticles.
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