Oral hyaluronan relieves wrinkles: a double-blinded, placebo-controlled study over a 12-week period

Mariko Oe,1 Seigo Sakai,1 Hideto Yoshida,1 Nao Okado,1 Haruna Kaneda,1 Yasunobu Masuda,1 Osamu Urushibata2 1R&D Division, Kewpie Corporation, Sengawa-cho, Chofu-shi, 2Department of Dermatology, Toho University Ohashi Medical Center, Ohashi, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan Background: Hyaluronan (HA) has critical moisturizing property and high water retention capacity especially for human skin. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of oral intake of HA. Methods: The mean molecular weight (MW) of HA is 2 k and 300 k. Sixty Japanese male and female subjects aged 22–59 years who presented with crow’s feet wrinkles were randomly assigned to the HA 2 k or HA 300 k at 120 mg/day or the placebo group. The subjects were administered HA at a rate of 120 mg/day or a placebo for 12 weeks. The skin wrinkles were evaluated by image analysis of skin wrinkle replicas, and their skin condition was evaluated using a questionnaire survey. Results: During the study period, the HA groups showed better level of the whole sulcus ­volume ratio, wrinkle area ratio, and wrinkle volume ratio than the placebo group. After 8 weeks of ingestion, the HA 300 k group showed significantly diminished wrinkles compared with the placebo group. Skin luster and suppleness significantly improved after 12 weeks in all groups compared with the baseline. Conclusion: The results suggest that oral HA (both HA 2 k and HA 300 k) inhibits skin wrinkles and improves skin condition. Keywords: hyaluronic acid, dietary supplement, skin, wrinkle volume, molecular weight