Lab Study: A Stabilised CoQ10 Form Plus a Vitamin C Derivative Raised Collagen Output in Skin Cells

Coenzyme Q10 and vitamin C often turn up in the same anti-ageing products, and a cell study published in the September-October 2026 issue of BioFactors looked at what happens when the two are combined in the lab.

The team, from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Fukuoka University in Japan, focused on ubiquinol-10, the reduced, active form of CoQ10. The authors note that it is hard to use in skin products because it oxidises easily, breaks down in light and can be phototoxic. To get around that they attached ester groups to make two derivatives, a succinate version and a glutarate version, and applied them to normal human dermal fibroblasts, the cells that make collagen, for 48 hours.

According to the paper's abstract, the succinate derivative raised the amount of CoQ10 inside the cells far more than regular CoQ10 or plain ubiquinol, increased cellular energy (ATP) production, lowered markers linked to cell ageing and inflammation, and switched up genes for collagen type I, elastin and hyaluronic acid. The glutarate version barely converted to ubiquinol but still built up in the cells and lowered enzymes that break down collagen. When the succinate derivative was given together with phosphorylated vitamin C derivatives, the type of stabilised vitamin C found in many serums, the cells released significantly more collagen and kept less of it trapped inside.

That last finding fits what is already known: fibroblasts need vitamin C to finish making collagen and send it out of the cell. The authors conclude that the combination is a promising anti-ageing strategy.

Keep the scale in mind. These were cells in a dish at a fixed concentration, not skin on a person. The study does not show that the derivatives get through the skin barrier, how stable they are in a finished product, or whether anyone's wrinkles change. The derivatives are not, as far as this paper says, in products on sale. Until human trials exist, treat CoQ10 and vitamin C combinations on shop shelves as reasonable partners rather than a proven upgrade.