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Adverse Health Effects of UVR on Skin and Other Organs
Summary
This book chapter reviews how ultraviolet radiation harms the skin and other organs through DNA damage and oxidative stress, and briefly notes that microplastics are among the environmental pollutants that can synergize with UV to increase skin damage. While the paper is primarily about UV health effects rather than microplastics, it identifies plastic particles as one of several environmental co-stressors that may worsen UV-related outcomes.
Ultraviolet radiations (UVR) are the solar radiations responsible for skin aging, sunburn, pigmentary disorders, and cutaneous cancers. The mechanism of action can vary based on their wavelengths, but it mostly relies on DNA damage and oxidative stress reactions. Beside the skin, other organs can be directly (i.e., eyes) or indirectly (i.e., gut, kidneys, nervous system) affected by UVR. Considering that many manmade activities lead to the release of toxic substances into the atmosphere able to deplete the ozone (O3) layer, the exposure to UVR has increased tremendously in the past decades, becoming one of the most dangerous threats for human health. Moreover, UVR can synergistically interact with many other pollutants present within the environment, such as particulate matter (PM), O3 itself, microplastics etc., resulting in an enhanced cutaneous damage. On the other hand, exposure to the sun is fundamental to produce vitamin D that regulates many processes in a variety of tissues and organs, such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, calcium maintenance, and bone homeostasis. Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a worldwide concern as it can result in the development of several conditions including kidney failure, skin cancer, osteoporosis, and pulmonary and gastrointestinal (GI) tract diseases. The aim of the present chapter is to give a general knowledge on UVR effects on human health to better understand the important balance between the detrimental and beneficial effect of UVR exposure.