What role could fish guts play in future skin care products?

There are some pretty weird ingredients in cosmetics and skincare products. One example is snail slime – also known as snail mucus – which is used for its moisturizing and antioxidant properties. However, researchers who report in ACS Omega you might find something even weirder to put on your face: molecules produced by fish gut bacteria. In cultured cells, the compounds showed skin-brightening and anti-wrinkle properties, making them potential ingredients in your future skincare routine.

While fish guts might seem like the last place you’d look for cosmetic compounds, that’s not a completely absurd idea. Many important drugs have been found in strange places—most famously, penicillin’s antibiotic properties were discovered after a failed experiment went moldy. More recently, the brain cancer drug candidate Marizomib was derived from microbes unearthed from marine sediments on the ocean floor. Two potentially untapped sources of new compounds could be the gut microbes of red and black sea bream, fish that live in the western Pacific Ocean. Although these microbes were first identified in 1992 and 2016, respectively, no studies have been done on the compounds they produce. So Hyo-Jong Lee and Chung Sub Kim wanted to see if these bacteria produce any metabolite compounds that could have cosmetic benefits.

The team identified 22 molecules produced by gut bacteria from red and black seabream. They then assessed each compound’s ability to inhibit the enzymes tyrosinase and collagenase in lab-grown mouse cells. (Tyrosinase is involved in the production of melanin, which causes hyperpigmentation in aging skin. Collagenase breaks down the structural protein collagen, causing wrinkles.) Three molecules from red seabream bacteria best inhibited both enzymes without damaging the cells, making them promising anti-wrinkle and skin-lightening agents in future cosmetic products.

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Marine Biotechnology Program of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the National Scientific Research Foundation of Korea, the Technology Development Program of the Ministry of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Startups, Sungkyunkwan University, and the BK21 FOUR Program of the Ministry of Education of Korea.