effectiveness of vco nanoemulgel in reducing tewl for the prevention of striae gravidarum in mus musculus

Pregnancy is highly anticipated by women, but it often leads to persistent issues like striae gravidarum (sg), which affects 70-90% of pregnancies. sg is characterized by atrophic stretching that disrupts skin barrier function and increases transepidermal water loss (tewl). virgin coconut oil (vco) contains oleic, linoleic, caproic, and capric acids, along with vitamins a, c, and e, which serve as moisturizers that help restore skin barrier function, as marked by the reduction of tewl. this study aims to assess the effectiveness of vco nanoemulgel in reducing tewl to prevent sg in mus musculus. this true experimental study involved 35 mice, of which 28 were pregnant and included in the analysis, while 7 served as non-pregnant controls. the treatment group received vco nanoemulgel twice daily during pregnancy, applying 1 ml. tewl was measured using a tewameter® tm 300, and sg was scored using the davey score. statistical analysis included the kruskal-wallis test, mann-whitney post hoc test, and spearman correlation test. vco nanoemulgel significantly reduced tewl values (p<0.05), with a mean tewl of 23.900 in the positive control (k+) group versus 8.900 in the p2 group (150 µg/ml dose). sg scores also decreased significantly (p<0.05), with a mean sg score of 15.14 in k(+) compared to 5.00 in p2. post-hoc analysis showed significant differences between the p2 group and both control groups in tewl and sg scores. a correlation between tewl and sg was found with p<0.05 and r=0.483. vco nanoemulgel at a dose of 150 µg/ml shows promise in reducing tewl values, potentially preventing sg in mus musculus. these findings warrant further investigation to confirm the efficacy and mechanisms of vco nanoemulgel in sg prevention.