A novel
stratum corneum substitute (SCS) has been developed, and
the fundamental mechanism of the dehydration process has been studied
using the SCS. After washing with cleansers which contain surfactants,
our skin “feels” dehydrated (or hydrated). Although
many studies have focused on the effect of surfactants on the regulation
of the water loss by the lipid bilayers in the stratum corneum (SC)
for a long timescale or at equilibrium, only few studies have focused
on the acute effect of the surfactant interaction on dehydration.
In addition, the interaction between the surfactant and keratin has
been often underappreciated compared to lipid bilayers although keratin
is the major nonaqueous component of the SC. Here, we have developed
novel SCS models, nonkeratinized (lipid only) and keratinized, to
study the effect of keratin hydrolysates on the dehydration rate.
We have confirmed that the lipid organizational structure of the SCS
was similar to that of the human SC using X-ray scattering. We have
revealed that keratin hydrolysates play a significant role in the
dehydration rate, accelerating the rate for the short term. We have
also demonstrated that the effect of surfactants on dehydration is
more pronounced for keratinized samples than that for the nonkeratinized
sample. However, the dehydration rate for the nonkeratinized SCS with
the surfactant became faster than the that for the keratinized SCS
after the 20 min evaporation process, suggesting that the water binding
sites of keratin hydrolysates slowed down evaporation, while the surfactant
interacting with the lipids accelerated the water loss. Lastly, the
study demonstrated that the SCS model can be a great platform to test
macroscopic properties and analyze the underlying mechanism at the
molecular level for various chemicals.