4. Determining activity

4.1 Targets of active ingredients for skin repair

First of all, the anatomical location of the wound must be taken into account, because although the healing process is generally the same for all wounds, some areas of the body heal less well than others, and many factors can either slow down or speed up this process.

As mentioned above, a multitude of phenomena come into play in the skin repair process, but they are all part of one of the following phases: homeostasis, inflammation, proliferation, or remodeling/maturation/epithelialization. This multiplies the potential number of targets for proving the efficacy of a cosmetic ingredient for skin repair. However, this ingredient acts more specifically on the later stages of healing, notably remodeling, and only...