Meital Portugal-Cohen

The skin is increasingly recognized as a biological active organ interacting with the immune system. Given that the epidermal skin layer actively releases various cytokines, non‐invasive skin sampling methods could detect these cytokines, offering insights into clinical conditions. This study aims non‐invasively measuring cytokine levels directly f...

The skin is constantly exposed to exogenous environmental stressors and has to cope with excessive oxidative stress and tissue damage. However, exposure to moderate environmental stressors may be beneficial for the cutaneous tissue and assist in protecting against oxidative damage via the enhanced activation of the nuclear factor erythroid 2‐relate...

Background Therapeutic effects of Dead Sea (DS) minerals are well established, and their unique combination is analyzed and reported. DS water (DSW) is a key source for DS minerals and various studies report the capability of DSW to alleviate symptoms of different skin disorders and to contribute to skin maintenance. However, the biological mechani...

We report the use of inverse Supercritical Fluid Extraction (inverse SFE) and miniaturized Asymmetrical Flow Field-Flow Fractionation (mAF4) for the preparation and subsequent analysis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in model and commercial sunscreens. The approach allows for the fast and reliable fractionation and sizing of TiO2-nanoparticles an...

Background Urban pollution is a major source of concern for human health and is a complex of many environmental factors. The topical exposure to pollution activates cutaneous stress. Objective In this study, we tested the antipollution protection of two active components: Dead Sea minerals (Dead Sea mineral-rich water [DSW]) and anionic polysaccha...

We demonstrate the use of inverse supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) extraction as a novel method of sample preparation for the analysis of complex nanoparticle-containing samples, in our case a model sunscreen agent with titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The sample was prepared for analysis in a simplified process using a lab scale supercritical f...

Background: Metal impurities such as nickel and chrome are present in natural ingredients-containing cosmetic products. These traces are unavoidable due to the ubiquitous nature of these elements. Dead Sea mud is a popular natural ingredient of cosmetic products in which nickel and chrome residues are likely to occur. Objective: To analyze the p...

Objective: Exposure to certain stresses in small doses might lead to a protective effect by improving resistance to other stressors. Dead Sea (DS) minerals can be a relevant source to induce positive stress due to their high salinity and unique mineral combination. This concept could be further optimized using advanced unique cell biotechnology. Th...

Drugs used for chemotherapy normally carry out adverse, undesired effects. Nanotechnology brings about new horizons to tackle cancer disease with a different strategy. One of the most promising approaches is the use of nanocarriers to transport active drugs. These nanocarriers need to have special properties to avoid immune responses and toxicity a...

In this review, a novel non-invasive approach based on skin surface wash sampling is described. Since the epidermis possesses a high metabolic activity, the secretion of various biomarkers can be exploited to develop non-invasive procedures for skin measurement to monitor disorders and to define a therapeutic strategy. Thus, we developed a method f...

Skin appearance is badly affected when exposed to solar UV rays, which encourage physiological and structural cutaneous alterations that eventually lead to skin photo-damage. To test the capability of two facial preparations, extreme day cream (EXD) and extreme night treatment (EXN), containing a unique complex of Dead Sea water and three Himalayan...

Psoriasis and atopic dermatitis (AD) are challenging to treat due to the absence of suitable monitoring procedure and their recurrences. Alteration of skin hydrophilic biomarkers (SHB) and structural elements occur in both disorders and may possess a distinct profile for each clinical condition. To quantify skin cytokines and antioxidants non-invas...

Cutaneous manifestations are common in hemodialysis (HD) patients with chronic renal failure (CRF). Associated with uremia, pruritus is a frequently observed symptom in CRF patients and increases with deteriorating renal function. Skin hydrophilic biomarkers (SHB) may be altered in CRF compared to healthy controls. A noninvasive skin wash sampling...

Dead Sea (DS) mud and water are known for their unique composition of minerals, and for their therapeutic properties on inflammatory skin diseases. The objective of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of an emollient cream enriched with DS water in children with atopic dermatitis (AD). Eighty six AD children were randomized in a double-blind con...

Heavy cocaine abusers are known to develop adverse skin manifestations, however, a possible mechanism for such damages has not yet been proposed. The present study was designed to investigate whether a systemic cocaine administration affects skin characteristics by elucidating modifications of reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, antioxidant d...

The present study was designed to investigate the short-term safety and efficacy of topical application with body lotion enriched with minerals from the Dead Sea versus 2 different placebo treatments in reducing symptoms of uremic pruritus. In this single-center, randomized, double placebo-controlled clinical trial, 78 hemodialysis patients with se...

Diabetes mellitus is characterized by a chronic hyperglycemia and might cause skin pathologies resulting from an ischemic insult. A variety of mechanisms have been suggested for the damage provided by ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) or for hyperglycemic conditions. Yet, the association between IRI and hyperglycemia together in skin has been poorl...

Dead Sea (DS) mud and water are known for their unique composition of minerals, and for their therapeutic properties on psoriasis and other inflammatory skin diseases. Their mode of action, however, remains poorly known. To analyse the ability of Dermud, a leave-on skin preparation containing DS mud and other ingredients like DS water, zinc oxide,...

Skin, the largest tissue exposed to a variety of stresses demonstrates a common cellular biochemical response unrelated to the type of the stress allegedly. In this chapter we will describe a phenomenon in which different insults, unrelated to oxidative events to start with, resulted in an activation of common cellular biochemical pathways. These p...

The pathogenicity of skin disorders involves a complexity of physiological, immunological, environmental, and genetic phenomena. This review focuses on cross-talks between two main agents, the oxidants and cytokines network, which have recently been found to play important roles in the pathophysiology of a large variety of skin disorders, including...