Age‐related biophysical changes of the epidermal and dermal skin in Korean women

Abstract

Introduction The clinical characteristics of skin were investigated to study the inter‐relationship and changes in the biophysical properties of the epidermal and dermal layers associated with aging using noninvasive methods. Methods Our study included 100 healthy women aged between the early 20s and late 60s. Biophysical characteristics of skin such as color (brightness and spots), transparency, wrinkle on crow's feet, elasticity, hydration, sebum content, glossiness, and transepidermal water loss measured under controlled conditions. Results This study performed in a Korean population demonstrated that aging significantly affects human skin in terms of parameters such as wrinkles, skin color, elasticity, and epidermal hydration. Age‐related changes in skin hydration showed varying patterns between the epidermis and dermis. Skin color showed heterogeneous characteristics between the upper and lower epidermal layers associated with aging. Skin elasticity and wrinkles were observed to show and inversely proportional relationship in the early 40s. Conclusions We confirmed the significant influence of aging on the biophysical properties of skin and determined the distinct age‐related biophysical changes in the epidermal and dermal layers of skin using noninvasive method. This study indicates the need for further research to investigate the distinctive age‐related changes in characteristics of the epidermal and dermal layers of human skin.

<p>The Interaction of Age and Anatomical Region Influenced Skin Biophysical Characteristics of Chinese Women</p>

“…Many people believe that the skin moisture content diminishes with age, and some researchers supported this opinion. 5,16,30 In our study, this phenomenon was observed only for the cheek, but not for the forehead and forearm which presented curves with the peak at around the age of 35 and 40 years old, respectively ( Figure 1A,B,D). Hydration was largely stable for the chin, with even a small increasing trend with age ( Figure 1C).…”

“…Nevertheless, a few publications presented a non-monotonic relationship between some parameters and age. 5,9 Instead of the linear regression model, we chose the generalized additive model to fit the change trend of skin parameters with age. The generalized additive model takes the additive form of nonparametric function to get better model interpretation and prediction in non-linear regression.…”

“…16,18,27 However, a negative correlation of TEWL with age has been revealed by other researchers. 5,9,30 Discrepancies in the measured region selection, age groupings, race and geographical location might explain these conflicting results. Additionally, over 90% of the subjects in our study routinely used moisturizers which impacted the skin biophysical properties, especially skin hydration and TEWL, resulting in the lack of significant difference among age groups.…”

“…3 Many studies have reported that these skin biophysical parameters changed according to age, gender, anatomical regions and seasons in different ethnic populations. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Man et al demonstrated that the skin surface pH, sebum content and SC hydration varied with age, gender and body site in a large Chinese population. 12 Mayes et al reported that the facial skin L*a*b* skin colors, hydration and TEWL had associations with chronological age in Chinese females.…”

Objective measurement and comparison of human facial skin color in East Asian females

“…Flament et al reported that skin pigmentation was observed with age in Caucasians. In addition, Cho et al researched the age‐related skin color changes in the epidermal and dermal skin in Koreans and discovered that skin transparency and brown spots showed a rapid change at the ages of the early 30s and late 50s.…”