Durability of the sun protection factor provided by dihydroxyacetone.

Faurschou A, Wulf HC.

Photodermatology, photoimmunology & photomedicine · 2004

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Abstract

Background/purpose The sunless tanning agent dihydroxyacetone (DHA) is known to protect against longwave ultraviolet radiation (UVA) and visible light. Recently, our laboratory has shown that DHA in addition offers a modest sun protection factor (SPF) in humans. We conducted this study in order to investigate the durability of the SPF provided by DHA. Methods Ten healthy volunteers were treated with 20% DHA cream twice in three areas on the volar forearm. One, 5 and 7 days after the second application the participants were phototested with simulated sunlight in each area. Blue reflectance was used to measure the skin coloration by DHA in the test sites. Results DHA generated a significant SPF of 3.0 at day 1, 2.0 at day 5 and 1.7 at day 7 (P Conclusions The SPF of DHA decreases with the same loss of SPF unit/day between humans and the durability of the SPF thus depends on the initial SPF provided.