Immature mandarin orange extract increases the amount of hyaluronic acid in human skin fibroblast and keratinocytes.

Immature mandarin orange is thinned in order to maturation of orange. To use immature mandarin orange as a cosmetic functional material, we investigated the seasonal fluctuation changes in hesperidin and narirutin levels of immature mandarin oranges, and the effects on human skin cells. The contents of hesperidin from Aoshima, Otsu, and Shonan gold, is higher at about a month after flowering.

Construction of collagen gel scaffolds for mechanical stress analysis.

We designed a cyclic compression system using readily available six-well culture plates to investigate the influence of mechanical stress on skin-like structures. The effects of cyclic mechanical stress on protein expression by cells were easily examined, and hence, this system should be useful for further analysis of skin responses to mechanical stress.