A single ingredient for all types of skin ageing

In addition to the phenotypic skin-ageing classification of chronological (intrinsic) ageing and photo (extrinsic) ageing, several new terms describing multiple aspects of skin ageing have been introduced recently. These include inflammageing (Figure 1), barri-ageing (Figure 2) and sensiti-ageing (Figure 3). 

While these terms do not completely explain the complex mechanism of skin ageing, each tries to explain the major biological events associated with the ageing process and provides the mechanistic backgrounds for developing new antiageing cosmetic ingredients. As a result of these efforts, various kinds of bioactive ingredients have been introduced and efforts have been made to develop a single ingredient capable of addressing all these aspects of skin ageing at once.

Autophagy, derived from Greek words meaning ‘self’ and ‘eating’, is a process which removes the unnecessary, worn-out microorganelles or dysfunctional proteins through a lysosome-dependent regulated mechanism. Recently, studies have suggested an important role for autophagy in skin homeostasis and the potential use of autophagy-stimulating cosmetic ingredients has received a lot of attention.