Bleach Effective in Reducing Inflammatory Skin Damage

A new Stanford study finds that dilute bleach solution can reduce skin damage caused by inflammation.

The study was conducted on mice models. Dilute bleach has been used to treat mild eczema in humans, but it was never clear how the chemical worked.

"Originally it was thought that bleach may serve an antimicrobial function, killing bacteria and viruses on the skin," said Thomas Leung, MD, PhD, an instructor in dermatology at Stanford and a pediatric dermatologist at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "But the concentrations used in clinic are not high enough for this to be the sole reason. So we wondered if there could be something else going on."

When skin is damaged, the body starts an immune response to protect the site from infection. Researchers wondered whether bleach (sodium hypochlorite) could work in the same manner.

For the study, Leung and colleagues looked at a molecule called 'nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells', or NF-kB, which is known to be associated with damage repair and aging.

The experts wanted to know if there was any connection between NF-kB and effect of dilute bleach. So, they exposed the skin cells to 0.005 percent bleach an hour before treating them with the molecules that are known to increase activity of NF-kB.

They said that old mice treated with bleach had younger-looking skin." It went from old and fragile to thicker, with increased cell proliferation," Leung said.  

They found that bleach exposure led to decrease in NF-kB. However, the effect was reversible only after a day, the gene regained its ability to regulate inflammation-related gene.

"We found that the bleach solution oxidizes and inhibits an activator necessary for NF-kB to enter the nucleus, essentially blocking NF-kB's effect," Leung said in a news release.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Experts have warned that people shouldn't apply bleach directly on the skin, BBC reported.