86 MENOPAUSAL SKIN CARE
Polar head group O HN Figure 1: General ceramide molecule
essential for skin barrier integrity. During the menopause, there is a dramatic
loss of ceramide content in the skin, which weakens the barrier leading to a significant increase in trans epidermal water loss (TEWL), skin soon becomes drier, and sensitivity quickly follows. Exciting new studies reveal that not only
can our vitamin B3 boost the reduced ceramide seen in post-menopausal skin by up to 30% in just one month, but because the niacinamide active works through skin’s biosynthetic enzymatic pathways the twelve main subclasses of skin ceramides are returned to the natural balanced found in pre-menopausal skin. Ceramides are a class of lipids composed
of a fatty acid linked by an amide bond to a sphingosine molecule that are naturally found in the skin. They play a role in maintaining the skin barrier, helping to moisturize and protect the skin from environmental damage. Because both the fatty acid and the sphingolipid chains can vary in length, epidermal ceramides are a large family with diverse structures that allow skin to have different attributes. The general structure of a ceramide is shown in Figure 1. There are twelve main classes of ceramide
found in the stratum corneum (Figure 2) and within each class there are the many sub- species with different chain lengths. In healthy pre-menopausal skin, the
following ceramides are most abundant: non-hydroxy fatty acid with sphingosine
30% 20% 10% 5% 0%
Ads AH AP AS EOH EOS NdS NH Figure 3: Change in percentage share of total ceramides. After 28 days treatment in pre-, post and treated menopausal facial skin PERSONAL CARE August 2025
www.personalcaremagazine.com NP NS
Dihydrosphingosine (dS)
(NdS)
Sphingosine (S)
(NS)
Phytosphingosine (P)
6-hydroxy sphingosine (H)
(NH) O HN (NP) OH OH OH (AP) O HN OH OH OH (AH) OH Figure 2: The 12 main classes of ceramide found in the stratum corneum
(NS), α-hydroxy fatty acid with 6-hydroxy sphingosine (AH), and non-hydroxy fatty acid with 6-hydroxy sphingosine (NH). While esterified α-hydroxy fatty acid with phytosphingosine (EOP) and esterified α-hydroxy fatty acid with dihydrosphingosine (EOdS) are present at lower levels. In post-menopausal skin the total amount
of ceramide is much lower, and differences are seen in the levels of individual ceramides. For example, non-hydroxy fatty acid with sphingosine (NS) is reduced in post- menopausal skin by 10%. Esterified α-hydroxy fatty acid with sphingosine is reduced by 6% and both α-hydroxy fatty acid with sphingosine
(AS) and esterified α-hydroxy fatty acid with sphingosine (EOS) are reduced by 5%.2
Vitamin B3 re-balancing post- menopause ceramide composition A clinical study was carried out to investigate the difference in facial ceramides, between pre-menopausal (PreM) and post-menopausal (PoM) volunteers and to evaluate the effects of niacinamide treatment on post-menopausal (PoM) facial skin. Three groups of healthy Caucasian women
volunteers, aged 48-65 years were selected. At day zero, six superimposed D-Squame tape strips were collected from the same place on
■ PreM d28 ■ PostM d28 ■ B3 5% NA d28 O HN OH OH (AS) OH HN OH OH HN O OH OH (EOH) OH O O HN O OH OH (EOP) O O HN OH
Non-hydroxy fatty acid (N) α-Hydroxy fatty acid (A) OH
O HN OH OH (AdS) OH HN O OH OH (EOS) O OH OH O O HN HN O OH OH (E0dS) O OH OH
Esterified α-Hydroxy fatty acid (EO) O
O O HN OH OH OH OH
Fatty acid chain with variable chain length
Sphingosine chain with variable chain length
O OH OH
% of total ceramides
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