subject: What is Elastin and How is it Involved in Skin Laxity? [print this page] At what age do you start to see noticeable skin sagging and what is happening within the skin? Some people say skin starts to sag from the day we are born. However, we do know that babies faces quickly restore their plumpness when we 'goo-goo' them and pinch their cheeks while the same action in an elderly patient is more likely to incur their wrath over the bruise you have left behind. Somewhere, in the middle years is the day when you notice the skin's underlying structure is breaking down, robbing our faces of definition, youthful plumpness, and inner resilience. This usually happens in earnest during our early forties. Whenever we reach this stage we will soon know or if we don't we will be reminded, because it is the time of life when younger people tend to refer to our sagging faces with such unflattering terms like loose jowls, turkey neck, and falling face. This is the time we urgently need to see the cosmetic doctor. And maybe then, sometimes it is just too late for any repair except surgery. The cosmetic doctor will fill the consultation by telling us how the skin now renews itself much more slowly than it once did. This is correct as most components of the skin, including collagen, undergo continuous turnover. At a younger age new collagen formation occurs as a result of active fibroblasts but this process slows in later life and the degradation of collagen predominates. Therefore, to keep your skin's collagen in synthetic balance, it is preferable after the age of thirty to do things that will boost collagen synthesis and reduce its degradation. The doctor will probably add that two of the other major causes of sagging skin are yo-yo dieting and prolonged exposure to sunlight. He/she may also mention more specific things like predetermined genetic make-up or even fat reabsorption but what we really want to know is what are you going to do about it? We hear a lot about free radicals. What are they? Free radicals are really unstable oxygen molecules formed by UV radiation. The oxygen molecule becomes unstable because UV radiation splits up an electron pair on its surface. This means the molecule remains unstable until it can secure another electron from a nearby molecule and it often does this by scavenging these from nearby genetic material. Free radicals can also activate MMP's (matrix metalloproteinases), which in turn break down collagen. It is known that they can induce cancer by altering genetic material. Some cells try and protect themselves against turning cancerous by committing a form of cell-suicide called apoptosis.
What is Elastin and How is it Involved in Skin Laxity?
