Evaluating the effect of ozone in UV induced skin damage

Air pollution represents one of the main risks for both environment and human health. The rapid urbanization has been leading to a continuous release of harmful manmade substances into the atmosphere which are associated to the exacerbation of several pathologies. The skin is the main barrier of our body against the external environment and it is the main target for the outdoor stressors. Among the pollutants, Ozone (O₃) is one of the most toxic, able to initiate oxidative reactions and activate inflammatory response, leading to the onset of several skin conditions. Moreover, skin is daily subjected to the activity of Ultraviolet Radiation which are well known to induce harmful cutaneous effects including skin aging and sunburn. Even though both UV and O₃ are able to affect the skin homeostasis, very few studies have investigated their possible additive effect. Therefore, in this study we evaluated the effect of the combined exposure of O₃ and UV in inducing skin damage, by exposing human skin explants to UV alone or in combination with O₃ for 4-days. Markers related to inflammation, redox homeostasis and tissue structure were analyzed. Our results demonstrated that O₃ is able to amplify the UV induced skin oxinflammation markers.