When the skin is overexposed to ultraviolet rays, free radicals will accumulate in the skin, causing lipid damage and even inducing photoaging of the skin. Combination therapy with antioxidant drugs is a good choice for topical treatment of skin photoaging due to its special physiological structure. In this paper, shikonin was encapsulated in β-cyclodextrin (SH-β-CD) by the precipitation crystallization method, which delayed the release of the drug and increased drug solubility. The average diameter of SH-β-CD was 203.0 ± 21.27 nm with a zeta potential of -14.4 ± 0.5 mV. The encapsulation efficiency (EE%) was 65.9 ± 7.13%. The results of the in vitro permeation across the dialysis membrane and ex vivo transdermal release rates were 52.98 ± 1.21% and 88.25 ± 3.26%, respectively. In vitro antioxidant and antilipid peroxidation model assay revealed the antioxidant potential of SH and SH-β-CD. In the mice model of skin photoaging, SH and SH-β-CD had a recovery effect on the skin damage of mice, which could significantly increase the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity in the skin. Briefly, SH-β-CD had an obvious therapeutic effect on the skin photoaging of mice caused by UV, and it is promising in skin disease treatment and skin care.
Keywords: SOD activity; antioxidant; shikonin-loaded β-cyclodextrin; skin photoaging.