14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study conducted by German researchers proved that women's skin ages and is damaged by exterior agents more quickly than men's skin. The study was carried out by a team of scientists at the Friedrich Schiller University, in Jena, at the Fraunhofer Institute of Biomedical Technology, in St. Ingbert and at JenLab GmbH, a Jena-based laser technology company. They used modern techniques to measure the elastin and collagen amounts found in the skin of men and women. The results of the report conducted by the German team are due to appear in the October issue of Optics Letters journal, the journal of the Optical Society of America.
The new technology is laser-based and has the ability to penetrate the skin and scan both the epidermis and dermis, therefore it can completely and deeply measure the structure of the skin. Depending on the levels of collagen and elastin present in one's skin, medical experts can tell whether his skin is damaged, wrinkled and lost its smoothness. "You would like to measure changes in collagen content over time. Moreover, current techniques provide a qualitative assessment of the state of the matrix, but no precise measure of the collagen or of the elastin content, which is what the new technique does," stated the team.
Researchers found that there can be cases in which portions of an individual's skin in his middle age looks and is as 'young' as the one of a teenager and other areas in which his skin looks and is much damaged and 'older'. It all depends on the look of the skin (wrinkles, smoothness) and its levels of collagen and elastin. "In a healthy 35-year-old, some areas can appear like the skin of a 25-year-old, and others like that of someone who's 50," explained Johannes Koehler, Dermatologist at Friedrich Schiller University who was involved in the study.
A comparative study regarding women and men's quality of skin found that the age of the epidermis and dermis differs depending on sexes. Men's skin was found to age more slowly as compared to a woman's skin, which would become damaged, wrinkled, and lose its smoothness more quickly.
The authors of the Optics Letters report manifested high hopes that the new developed technique of measuring skin's structure would become sooner very useful in detecting and unlocking the mystery of collagen-related skin conditions, such as scleroderma. "Perhaps the technique could help monitor the progress of the disease, or the success of a treatment," said Koehler. He also added: "Some cosmetics are thought to change the content of collagen in the skin, but until now, to measure that you had to cut out a piece of skin."