Digital Imaging: from skin exploration to the quantification of the efficacy of cosmetic products – A powerful approach to dermo-cosmetic research
DAVID BOUDIER*, MAGALIE PINEL, VINCENT BARRUCHE, JOSSELIN BREUGNOT, BRIGITTE CLOSS
SILAB, R&D Department – Z.I de la Nau, 19240 Saint-Viance, France
*Corresponding author
Abstract
Application of high-precision optical technologies on targeted cutaneous biological models allows the generation of a growing number of high-resolution digital images.These digital images provide an essential way of exploration and illustration in the cosmetics field but, in a more interesting manner, they can be used in a quantitative objective.Therefore, a targeted 3-step approach was set up for all “imaging quantification” performed in-vitro as well as in-vivo, whatever high-tech acquisition tool is used.This approach allows using “imaging quantification” as an extremely powerful, precise and standardized tool of measurement in conditions that are extremely attentive to requirements at each step of the process, from acquisition to quantification.This article will demonstrate the sensitivity of this approach through a direct application in the measurement of corneocyte lipids pre-stained with a fluorescent dye.
INTRODUCTION
Imaging in the cosmetics sector, primarily for substantiation purposes, has witnessed a significant development in recent years thanks to advances in terms of biological models, which have become increasingly sophisticated, as well as to the technological innovations within the field of image acquisition and analysis tools.
This progress has now made it possible to generate high-resolution digital images that allow the observation of healthy skin and the monitoring of its evolution under the effects of various applied conditions, from its surface down to its deepest tissue levels and from the macroscopic to the microscopic, if not molecular, scales.
In addition to that, these images are sometimes used as marketing aids, to visualize and better illustrate a cosmetic benefit, or to visually explain a cellular action mechanism. However, imaging can no longer be restricted to have a purely illustrative and exploratory context.
By developing and applying appropriate mathematical models, programmed in the form of modules in imaging quantification software working on powerful computing platforms, it is possibl ...
