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Women's Skin May Age Faster
Laser device may be able to reveal how fast your
skin is aging.
By Salyan Boyles
WebMD
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Women's skin ages faster than men's, suggests a
study that used an experimental laser device to
measure skin damage.
Researchers in Germany used the device to determine
collagen and elastin levels beneath the skin's
surface. Collagen and elastin are the proteins
responsible for the elasticity, tone, and texture of
skin, and levels typically decline with age.
There is no good way to assess skin
aging, as measured
by collagen and elastin composition, short of
removing skin and analyzing it in a lab.
The laser procedure shows promise for making the
process a whole lot simpler. That could one day help
consumers better evaluate the effectiveness of the
antiaging skin products they buy, researcher Martin
Johannes Koehler, of Germany's Schiller University,
tells WebMD.
"Some cosmetics are thought to change the content of
collagen to the skin, but until now to measure that
you had to cut out a piece of skin," he says.
Multiphoton Laser Imaging
The search for a noninvasive test to measure damage
to the skin from sun exposure and aging is the Holy
Grail of the cosmetics industry.
But proving that a skin cream that promises to turn
back the clock really is worth $100 an ounce is only
one potential application for the experimental laser
technique, Koehler says.
It may also prove useful for evaluating skin
diseases like that seen in
scleroderma, which
is a serious autoimmune disease, as well as a skin
complication that can occur in transplant
recipients, known as graft vs. host disease.
Koehler and colleagues used the technique, called
multiphoton laser imaging, on the inner forearms of
seven women and 11 men between the ages of 21 and
84.
The researchers used the information gathered from
the imaging to develop an aging index of the dermis,
an inner layer of the skin. Skin aging was more
evident in women than in men of similar age. It was
most marked in older women who had been through
menopause.
The researchers wrote that menopause-related
declines in the sex hormones estrogen and
progesterone might explain this acceleration in skin
aging.
More Study Needed
But they added that more research is needed to
confirm the finding that men and women's skin ages
at different rates. The researchers also note that
studies comparing their aging index measurements
need to be compared to established measures such as
skin surface hydration and wrinkle number and depth.
The study is
published in the Oct. 1 issue of the journal
Optics Letters.
Cosmetic dermatologist Eliot Battle, MD, tells WebMD
that the laser procedure is one of several promising
experimental techniques that could help clinicians
more easily diagnose and treat skin diseases.
"Diagnostic tools like this have been used in every
area of medicine, but they are only beginning to be
used in dermatology," he says. "This [technique] is
an attempt to use the latest and greatest in laser
imaging, but much more research is needed. This is
just the very beginning of what could be an exciting
journey."
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