IMPACT OF DIET RELATED WATER ON HUMAN SKIN BIOMECHANICS Maria Lídia Palma1, Carla Monteiro1 L.Tavares1, C. Monteiro1, M. J. Bujan3, L. M. Rodrigues 1,2 (1) CBIOS U Lusófona, Lisbon, PORTUGAL (2) Pharmacol Sciences Dept. – Lab Experimental Physiology, U de Lisboa (School Pharmacy) Lisbon, PORTUGAL (3) Universitad Alcalá, Fc Medicine, Madrid, SPAIN Background/purpose: It is accepted that increased water intake has a positive influence in human skin physiology. The present study aimed to assess the impact of increased water intake on skin biomechanical behavior in 2 group with different dietary consume habits. Results: Data seems to suggest that variation of the dietary water intake alters normal skin physiology detected in all anatomical sites. A increase of (Uf) in the 2 groups (Figure 1 and 2). The Ua at the end of the study improved in both groups (Figure 3 and 4). The Ua/Uf (Figure 5 and 6), the Ur/Ue (Figure 7 and 8) showed a tendency to decrease over the course of the study, The Uv/Ue (Figure 8 and 9) decreased throughout the study which suggests an increase in the viscoelastic portion of the skin, with statistical significance. The statistically significant results were only in Group 1. Material/Methods: 49 healthy female volunteers (mean age 24,30±5,53 y. o.) with written consent. 2 groups: Group 1 ( n = 38 ) , Group 2 (n = 11 ), with a mean daily water consumption of 2130.7±524.4 mL/day and 3888.9±535.6 mL/day respectively. The water consumptions were previously calculated by a Food Frequency Questionnaire. Volunteers were then asked to add 2000ml / day for 1 month, to their normal dietary habits. The skin biomechanical properties involved the Cutometer ® SEM 580 CK at day zero (T0) , day 15 (T1) and day 30 (T2). The biomechanical descriptors were Uf, Ua, Ua/Uf, Ur/Ue and Uv/Ue Obtained in 5 anatomical sites. SPSS 20.0 involved ANOVA (GLM) corrected by Bonferroni t-statistcs. A confidence level of 95 % was adopted Grupo 2 Figure 2 . Uf - Extensibility Grupo 1 Figure 1 . Uf - Extensibility Grupo 1 Figure 5 . Ua/Uf Gross Elasticity Figure 6. Figure 5 . Ua/Uf Gross Elasticity Figure 4 . Ua - Elastic retraction Grupo 2 Grupo 1 Figure 3 . Ua - Elastic retraction Figure 7 . Ur/Ue - Elastic function Grupo 1 Figure 8 . . Ur/Ue - Elastic function Grupo 2 * p<0,05; **p<0,01; ***p<0,001 Conclusion: . The results suggest that the amount of water available in the skin does influences the biomechanical behavior of the skin, especially in those individuals with lower daily water consumptions especially in less exposed anatomical regions, particularly in the leg and in the forearm, as seems in others studies with cosmetics1,4. This phenomenon can be related to the increase quantity of water available in the dermis and epidermis already seems in others studies about increased in water consumption2,3. Figure 9 . Uv/Ue - Viscoelasticity Grupo 1 Grupo 2 Figure 10 . Uv/Ue - Viscoelasticity Grupo 2 Bibliography: Akhtar N, Zaman SU, Khan BA, Amir MN, Ebrahimzadeh MA. Calendula extract: effects on mechanical parameters of human skin. Acta Pol Pharm - Drug Res. 2011;68(5):693–701. Mac-Mary S, Creidi P, Marsaut D, Courderot-Masuyer C, Cochet V, Gharbi T, et al. Assessment of effects of an additional dietary natural mineral water uptake on skin hydration in healthy subjects by dynamic barrier function measurements and clinic scoring. Ski. Res. Technol. 2006;12:199–205. Palma ML. Water intake and relationship with the water content of diet in a healthy population. Biomed. Biopharm. Res. 2011;8:261–71. Dobrev H. Use of Cutometer to assess epidermal hydration. Ski. Res. Technol. 2000;6:239–44 * p<0,05; **p<0,01; ***p<0,001