These results suggest that the cardioprotective mechanism of telmisartan may be partly due to improvement of endothelial function associated with PPAR-gamma-eNOS, oxidative stress, and Rho-kinase pathway.

Transparency of the skin is an important keyword that is frequently used in questionnaires related to the female skin condition and skin consciousness, as well as an index for ‘before and after’ comparisons of the effect of cosmetics. However, the concept of ‘transparency’ has not been concretely defined. In the present study, we investigated the importance of ‘transparent skin’ and the relationship between transparency and other expressions for skin condition comparing the young with middle‐aged and elderly women. Furthermore, we also analyzed the correlation between the subjective assessment score of transparency of panels made by evaluators and the skin physiological parameters of those panels, and compared the difference of their relationship when the young and middle‐aged and elderly women were employed as evaluators. Regarding the consciousness of the young women, the importance of ‘transparent skin’ was ranked in the top position while ‘skin roughness’ was the chief worry of the middle‐aged and elderly women. On the other hand, both age groups indicated that transparent skin is a complex concept composed of skin texture, color, and moisture. Analysis of the relationship between the subjective assessment and the skin physiological parameters showed that the uneven dispersion of b in the skin color (standard deviation), the water content of stratum corneum, and the skin surface configuration (depth of furrows, amount of furrows) closely correlated with the judgment of skin transparency in the young group, in contrast to the uneven dispersion of L and a in the skin color (standard deviation) in the middle‐aged and elderly women. These results suggest that there may be no differences between the different age groups in the linguistic concept of transparency, while there may be differences in the physiological characteristics of skin that are utilized in making the judgment of transparency.

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Background Facial skin care (FSC) is an important routine for Japanese women. Hand motions during FSC physically affect psychological state. However, it is very difficult to evaluate hand motions during personal and complex FSC. The objective of this study was to find out objective and quantitative parameters for hand motions during facial skin care (FSC). Women who enjoy and soothe during FSC (Enjoyment group (E group), n = 20) or not (non-enjoyment group (NE group), n = 19) were recruited by an advance questionnaire. The same lotion, emulsion, and cream were provided to all subjects, and they used sequentially in the same way as the women’s daily FSC. The motion of the marker on the back side of the right middle finger during FSC was tracked by a motion capture system. The heart rate variability (HRV) was also measured before and after FSC for evaluating psychological effect. Results The averaged acceleration (Avg. ACC), approximate entropy (ApEn), and power law scaling exponent (Rest γ) of the cumulative duration of slow motion from the sequential data of acceleration were evaluated. Compared to the NE group, the E group showed a lower Avg. ACC when using emulsion (p = 0.005) and cream (p = 0.007), a lower ApEn when using emulsion (p = 0.003), and a lower Rest γ (p = 0.024) when using all items, suggesting that compared to the NE group, the E group had more tender and regular motion, and sustainable slow motions, especially in the use of emulsion. In the E group, the low/high-frequency component of HRV decreased significantly after FSC, suggesting suppression of sympathetic activity (p = 0.045). NE group did not. For all subjects, ApEn and Rest γ showed significantly positive correlation with the increase in the low/high-frequency component of HRV after FSC (p < 0.01). ApEn showed significantly negative correlation with the increase in the high-frequency component of HRV after FSC (p < 0.05). Avg. ACC did not show significant correlation with them. These results suggested that the behavior of FSC influences the autonomic nerve system. Conclusions ApEn and Rest γ are useful parameters for evaluating quality of hand motions during FSC.