- Publications
Guidelines on hyaluronic acid-based dermal fillers degradation for optimal safety
The Research & Development team at Teoxane just published a new scientific study in the Molecules Journal. The article underlines a novel rheological procedure to evaluate soft tissue fillers degradability and optimize their degradation kinetics.
Minimally invasive hyaluronic acid (HA)-based dermal fillers are nowadays routinely employed to correct skin ageing. HA fillers can advantageously be degraded by hyaluronidase (an enzyme naturally present in the organism that degrades hyaluronic acid) administration in case of adverse events. However, to date, there are still no clear guidelines regarding enzymatic degradation of fillers in clinic. Several recent studies have shown the clinical and preclinical interest of repeated injection of hyaluronidase in animals. In this new study, Teoxane wanted to scientifically demonstrate this process by creating a simple, reproducible, in vitro, and predictive test of a gel's ability to resist enzymatic degradation.
Interestingly, results have shown that HA gels degrade at various speed depending on a complex combination of enzyme’s choice, content of cross-linking agent and concentration of HA. Researchers from Teoxane have also shown that repeating hyaluronidase administration at relatively short intervals (from 5 min to 30 min between each injection) allows to reactivate the activity of the enzyme which has a very fast turnover and thus to maximize the degradation of the gel.
In addition, this protocol gives the practitioner time to perform check-ups between each injection and increases the probability of injecting the enzyme at the right place.
“From a R&D perspective, these results allow us to routinely estimate the durability of our products prototypes and to redesign the formula in case it degrades too quickly or if it does not degrade. It provides the basis for an in vitro persistence test limiting the use of animals and allowing to compare the longevity of fillers between them” says Jimmy Faivre, Research Manager at Teoxane.
Altogether, Teoxane have established, through this study, a scientific rationale for the degradation of HA dermal fillers by multidose hyaluronidase administration that supports the reported clinical management of adverse events.