Antioxidants modulates benzoyl-peroxide toxicity in human keratinocytes

Benzoyl peroxide (BP) is a free-radical generating compound, widely used in the polymer industry and also in pharmaceuticals as antimicrobial agent to treat acne. However, BP causes irritation and contact dermatitis in about 1% of patients. Concern over the use of this compound is motivated by the demonstration that it can also act as skin tumor promoter in mice. In addition, BP induces DNA strand breaks in many cells, included keratinocytes. In vitro, the tossicity associated with BP is presumably mediated by formation of benzoyloxyl radical, responsable for membrane damage. In this work we investigated the effect of both the lipophilic antioxidant a-tocopherol and the thiol donor N-acetylcysteine (NAC) in human keratinocyte line HaCaT exposed to BP