[Sunprotection: possibilities and limitations].

Protection against ultraviolet (UV) irradiation prevents from the development of acute skin damage such as erythema formation and chronic skin changes such as premature skin ageing. Especially those sunscreens with higher sun protection factors do not only protect against solar dermatitis but also inhibit UV-induced immunosuppression by blocking the release of immunosuppressive mediators from UV-exposed epidermis. In particular, the protection against UV-induced immunosuppression by sunscreens is supposed to reduce the development of UV-induced skin cancer. Besides immunosuppression UV-irradiation is also able to induce "UV signature" mutations within UV-exposed DNA. Topical application of DNA repair enzymes induces nucleotide excision repair and corrections of DNA damages. Thereby, the risk to develop UV-induced skin malignancies is markedly reduced. Accordingly, future perspectives in the development of sunscreens include DNA repair enzymes or factors, which can induce the endogenous cellular DNA repair system. Until these developments come to practice reasonable sun protection according to the skin complexion is of primary importance.