Disruption of Elastin in the Aging Skin, and the Little that Can Presently Be Done About It

The flexibility of skin, and other elastic tissue such as blood vessel walls, depends upon the structural arrangement of elastin in the extracellular matrix. Elastin is largely laid down during the developmental period of life, and not much repaired thereafter. Disruption of this structure is progressive over time, and is a major contribution to the changing physical properties and appearance of aging skin. The effects on blood vessels and other internal tissues are more important: loss of elasticity in blood vessels cascades to cause a great deal of downstream damage and dysfunction via its effects on blood pressure, on development of atherosclerosis, on supply of nutrients to tissues, and so forth. Repair of elastin is a challenging problem. One cannot just add elastin to a tissue and hope for improvement, as the precise structure, amount, and interactions with other components of the extracellular matrix are all important. The only realistic approach is to guide cells into performing the same work of elastic depositition that occurred in early life. This is not a solved problem, as it is quite possible to trigger behavior that leads to unhelpful or even harmful elastin deposition, in which the structure and amounts are incorrect. Regulatory networks must be clearly identified and then manipulated in the right ways. Some therapies tested over the past few decades do manage to create some improvement in measures of tissue elasticity, with good evidence for this...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs