The skin is the biggest organ of the body; it corresponds to 16% of its total weight. Composed by various layers, its primary role is to create an interface between the organism and the external environment. Skin helps to protect the body, creating a barrier more or less porous. Indeed, cutaneous tissue is daily exposed to multiple aggressions.
Those ones could be physical such as mechanical factor, thermal variation, UV and IR radiations, chemical like allergen or solvent, or even biological. Skin is also useful to fight against dehydration limiting the diffusion of water outside of the organism.
Cutaneous ageing is a genetic fact. It is a normal process, also called intrinsic ageing, due to a disorganisation of cellular matrix, at various levels; in the dermis, epidermis and hypodermis. Keratinocytes diminish, and their number and size decrease. Due to the alteration of their function, skin becomes dryer and thinner. In the dermis, the activity of fibroblasts drops, which leads to a decrease of collagen synthesis, thus renewal. Skin is no longer supported and sinks.
At the same time, in addition to those premeditated cutaneous ageing of cells, some extrinsic factors can increase this process and as well cause harmful and irreversible damages. The main factor is the environment in which skin evolves; climate, pollution, tobacco, sun, but also food, stress and other matters from our everyday environment. All of those external causes act on skin, accelerating cutaneous ageing but also increasing the synthesis of free radicals and reducing the skin’s barrier function. Skin is not able to endorse its barrier role, driving dehydration, slackening and leaving skin thinner and more sensitive.
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