Natural molecules limit effect of daily blue light

Artificial light is increasingly used in our modern daily life, composing a new kind of pollution called light pollution, considered an important health issue. Artificial light sources are more concentrated in high energy blue light than natural sunlight. Despite beneficial properties reported in the literature, blue light has been shown to also exert deleterious effects on skin, leading to skin premature ageing, this negative effect depending on doses and/ or conditions of exposure. In this study, we evaluated the protective capacity of a phenylpropanoid-rich Buddleja officinalis flower extract in reducing the deleterious effects of blue light on skin. By using in vitro and ex vivo models, this concentrated extract was proved to significantly limit the effect of blue light exposure: oxidative stress, DNA damages, extracellular matrix degradation, and hyperpigmentation by modulating Opsin 3 in melanocytes. Our natural active ingredient seems to prevent hyperpigmentation induced by blue light that could be of great interest for several hyperpigmentary disorders such as melasma. 

Natural light is essential for the entrainment of circadian clocks. However, emerging evidence suggests that the increasing exposure to artificial light is a risk factor for sleep and circadian disorders.1

With the prevalent use of LED lighting and device displays, humans are subjected to an increasing amount of light in the blue spectrum since commonly used LEDs emit a high fraction of blue light, often peaking at 460 nm. More precisely, blue light is a high energy visible (HEV) light with a wavelength ranging from 400 nm to 495 nm that could significantly influence biological systems and act on our health.2