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The Efficacy of a Broad-spectrum Sunscreen to Protect Engineered Human Skin from Tissue and DNA Damage Induced by Solar Ultraviolet Exposure¹

Departments of Medical Biology [V. B., R. D., M. Ro.], Social and Preventive Medicine [M. Rh.], and Medicine [J. C.], Faculty of Medicine, Laval University; Unité de Recherche en Génétique Humaine et Moléculaire [V. B., R. D.] and Unité de Biotechnologie [V. B., M. Ro.], Centre de Recherche, Hôpital Saint-François d’Assise, CHUQ, Québec, G1L 3L5 Canada; Unité de Recherche en Santé Publique [M. Rh.], Centre de Recherche, Centre de recherche du Centre hospitalier de l’Université Laval (CHUL), Centre hospitalier Universitaire de Québec (CHUQ), Québec, G1V 4G2 Canada; Hôpital Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, CHUQ, Québec, G1A 2J6 Canada [J. C.]; and University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Science Park Research Division, Smithville, Texas 78957 [D. L. M.]

Sunscreens are known to protect against sunlight-induced erythema and sunburn, but their efficiency at protecting against skin cancer is still a matter of debate. Specifically, the capacity of sunscreens to prevent or reduce tissue and DNA damage has not been thoroughly investigated. The present study was undertaken to assess the ability of a chemical broad-spectrum sunscreen to protect human skin against tissue and DNA damage after solar UV radiation. Engineered human skin was generated and either treated or not with a broad-spectrum SPF 30 sunscreen and exposed to increasing doses of simulated sunlight (SSL). Immediately after irradiation, histological, immunohistochemical, and molecular quantitative analyses were performed. The unprotected irradiated engineered human skin showed significant epidermal disorganization accompanied by a complete absence of laminin deposition. The sunscreen prevented SSL-induced epidermal damage at low doses and allowed laminin deposition at almost all SSL doses tested. The frequencies of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers, pyrimidine (6-4) pyrimidone photoproducts, and photooxidative lesions measured by alkaline gel electrophoresis and radioimmunoassay were significantly reduced by the sunscreen. Thus, tissue and DNA damage may provide excellent quantitative end points for assessing the photoprotective efficacy of sunscreens.