Molecular evidence that oral supplementation with lycopene or lutein protects human skin against ultraviolet radiation: results from a double‐blinded, placebo‐controlled, crossover study

What this study found

The main finding was that oral TNC and lutein protected skin at the molecular level against UV-induced photo-damage. TNC completely inhibited UVA1- and UVB/A-induced upregulation of HO-1, ICAM-1, and MMP-1 mRNA, with significant effects reported by ANOVA (p<0.05). Lutein also showed protection, but its effect was sequence-dependent: it was complete in the first treatment period and significantly smaller in the second sequence. The authors concluded that TNC and lutein may help protect against solar radiation–induced health damage.

Study & population

Healthy adult volunteers in Germany participated in a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial conducted from November 2008 to October 2009.

Intervention

This double-blind crossover study tested two oral supplement regimens: a lycopene-rich tomato nutrient complex (TNC) given as two capsules twice daily, and lutein given as one 10 mg capsule twice daily.

Key limitation

The trial was small, with 29 completions in the TNC arm and 30 in the lutein arm, and it relied on surrogate molecular outcomes rather than clinical skin cancer or photoaging endpoints.

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