Dry “fish scale” skin

1 in 250 people has dry “fish scale” skin. It is caused by a lack of filaggrin – a protein that occurs naturally in the skin and plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy skin.

Dry and scaly skin that may resemble fish scales. Those are the symptoms of a skin disorder called “fish scale” skin or Ichthyosis vulgaris. The name ichthyosis comes from Greek and means fish. Vulgaris means common.1

Who might get dry “fish scale” skin?
Approximately 1 in every 250 people has ”fish scale” skin, often on the arms and legs. It is most often heritable, caused by a mutation in the gene responsible for producing filaggrin – a protein that occurs naturally in the skin and plays a vital role in maintaining a healthy skin.1

Approximately 1 in every 250 people has ”fish scale” skin, often on the arms and legs.

What causes dry “fish scale” skin?
“Fish scale” skin occurs when a gene mutation results in a defective production of filaggrin, leading to filaggrin deficiency in the skin.1

“Fish scale” skin is caused by filaggrin deficiency in the skin.

Filaggrin helps maintain a normal pH balance in the skin, which is essential to maintaining an effective skin barrier.  The skin barrier is our body’s outermost layer of protection against the surroundings and prevents water from evaporating from the body.1  Filaggrin is also vital for the skin’s ability to remain hydrated because it breaks down into water-binding amino acids or “natural moisturizing factors” (NMFs) that help keep the skin adequately hydrated.

Filaggrin deficiency leads to reduced skin hydration, resulting in dry and scaly skin where the dead skin cells accumulate in thick, dry scales on the skin surface.

Filaggrin is vital for the skin’s ability to remain hydrated.

biomee™ | Hydrating amino acids pictogram | Hydrates the skin

Treatment
If you have dry “fish scale” skin due to a lack of filaggrin, your skin has a less robust skin barrier and needs help to stay properly hydrated. The regular application of ordinary moisturizing creams will have little effect because the lack of filaggrin makes it difficult for the skin to bind water.

The dry, scaly skin can be hydrated with creams that increase the skin’s natural water-binding capacity by adding amino acids that are a natural part of the skin’s properly functioning moisturizing factor (NMF) to the skin.

References
  1. DermNet NZ: Topics: Ichthyosis vulgaris. Available at https://dermnetnz.org/topics/ichthyosis-vulgaris (Last visited 22 April 2022)

Back

Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis (IAD)

Incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD) is a common form of irritant contact dermatitis caused by prolonged skin contact with urine. Moisturizing and restoring the skin barrier function are vital to treating IAD.

Read More

Dry skin in children with atopic dermatitis (AD)

Atopic dermatitis (AD) causes dry skin, itch, and rash. Up to 50% of people with AD lack the natural protein filaggrin in their skin. Therefore, their skin becomes dry, cracked and prone to infections.

Read More

83.6% of people surveyed prefer biomee™ skincare to other products

A recent survey of biomee™ customers found that 83.6% prefer biomee™ to other products for relieving symptoms like dry, itchy, and red skin related to Sjögren's, atopic dermatitis, eczema, psoriasis, and other conditions.

Read More

Study: biomee™ Dry Skin successfully alleviates dry skin symptoms in 87% of participants

Amino acids found in the outermost layers of the skin are crucial to normal skin hydration and are derived from degradation of the protein filaggrin. Filaggrin mutations or suppressed filaggrin production due to inflammation can result in lack of amino acids and dry skin.

Read More

contact us

Would you like to know more?

Do you have any questions, or would you like to know more about our biomee™ skin care line?

You are welcome to contact us at [email protected] and we will get back to you as soon as possible.