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An unexpected remedy to stop skin aging has been named
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Skin aging processes worry many women. With age, human skin becomes thinner, loses elasticity and the ability to regenerate.
Just recently, American researchers announced the news: a common substance can slow down the aging process - this is the antiseptic methylene blue, which also acts as an excellent antioxidant.
According to the head of the study, methylene blue can be mixed into external care products for mature skin from the anti-age series. It is noteworthy that until recently, methylene blue was used in foreign clinics exclusively for the correction of methemoglobinemia - a pathology when blood loses its ability to transport oxygen efficiently. In the post-Soviet countries, methylene blue was used as an antiseptic for diseases of the mucous membranes and skin.
Now this substance has a great future – in the fight for youthful skin.
“Given all the data we had, we wanted to test the properties of methylene blue on skin altered by age and oxidation,” says Dr. Xiong. To do this, the scientists tested methylene blue and three other substances with antioxidant properties using material from skin fibroblasts. This refers to the cell structures that produce collagen, which provides skin with turgor and elasticity.
The cellular structures were removed from healthy volunteers over 30 years of age. A small amount of material was also obtained from patients with progeria, a rare disease characterized by rapid cellular aging.
For four weeks, the specialists treated the material with methylene blue. As a result, it was discovered that the level of markers determining damage to cellular structures in the cell culture had significantly decreased. The blue substance successfully demonstrated resistance to cellular changes: fibroblasts began to divide more actively and exist longer.
The effect was noticeable even in the material taken from 80-year-old patients. "We were shocked by the results: cellular structures even in old age "grew younger" before our eyes! Methylene blue has a pronounced and powerful potential," the head of the study is quick to share the success.
Moreover, the blue substance turned out to be more effective than other antioxidants tested.
The scientists did not stop there and conducted other experiments using 3D models of human skin. They managed to prove that methylene blue prevents thinning and drying of the skin, thereby preventing the formation of wrinkles.
It is also important that the substance does not irritate tissues and is completely safe for humans.
"We have confirmed that methylene blue is a powerful agent that can fight age. If you regularly use preparations based on it, you can maintain the quality of cells for much longer. We have already launched tests of cosmetics that include the blue substance. In the future, we will consider the possibility of making such cosmetics available to everyone," the experts say.
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