bioskinregeneration.com

Helix Aspersa Muller is a creature that has survived adverse environmental conditions for more than 600 million years. This little gastropod or mollusk has an unusual defensive mechanism in the form of an intricate glycol-conjugate secretion which helps the creature rapidly repair any harm to its skin.

The research of the potential uses of this secretion goes back some 15 years. A Chilean enterprise has performed research and developed a biotechnology to gather the secretion. They do this by submitting the snails to controlled stress similar to what they have to endure to when a predator threatens them, or when they emerge into an atmosphere full of oxygen radicals after hibernating. This enterprise has also developed a biotechnology to secure the bio-availability of the secretion deep within the skin where it interacts with target cells to repair skin damage.

Natural Skin Treatment with Biological Ingredients

For many years, numerous scientists have analyzed snails and their secretions. The snails were treated as simple creatures, allowing research and the modeling of biological functions thought to be more complex in vertebrates. The scientists have discovered molecules in the snail secretion now being thought worthwhile candidates for the creation of drugs, and natural skin care treatments.

Their findings have resulted in a new field in science called the "sweet science of glycobiology", a blossoming branch that intends to understand how sugars in the body -called glycans- contribute to human health and keep information needed to define the complexity of life as that of DNA and proteins. It also sheds light onto the potential explanation of a more humble finding by layman people. The finding that manipulating snails while breeding them for their value as a gourmet delicacy, produced soft hands and scar free healing of small wounds, cuts and scrapes.

The Natural Way to Healthy Skin

Also, it could explain the further finding that snails injured by birds are able to repair some of their organs -eyes and mouth- by bubbling onto themselves what seems to be the same secretion mentioned above. The snails also use it to crawl more easily, hold onto something when on a vertical position defying gravity, to isolate themselves into their shell by the dry secretion on the opercula, or to persuade bugs to stay away from them. This biological secretion is the one that has this fascinating, healing effect on human skin.

Two patents of invention for a procedure created to collect the secretion and its use in cosmetic or skin care products have been granted. One to a Chilean doctor, in Chile in 1995, for a procedure to collect the fluids by agitating snails in warm water and then filtering the mucin, for the use of the extract in a skin care product made with petrochemical and other artificial excipients. The second to a Spanish oncologist, in the USA in 1996, for a procedure whereby snails are stressed mechanically to promote the secretion of their mucin, and the use of it for the therapeutic and cosmetic treatment of skin, specially for radiodermatitis. There is also a patent conferred in the US in 2000 for the use of an intricate glyco-molecule, isolated from the tissues and also present in the secretions of an African snail, as a solution to inhibit angiogenesis.