Fibroblast Growth Factors: A Controlling Mechanism of Skin Aging

Abstract

Cutaneous aging is a complex and continuous biological process characterized by cellular and molecular alterations, with progressive reduction of the body’s capacity to maintain the homeostasis, senescence, and/or apoptosis of the dermal cells. Fibroblast growth factors (FGF) have elicited studies to evaluate their role of repair and remodeling of the dermis during the skin anti-aging process, since they are regulatory proteins that mediate important signaling pathways and act on cell regeneration and repair processes. FGF acts primarily through binding to tyrosine kinase receptors through the autophosphorylation of their residues, promoting the phosphorylation of serine, threonine, and tyrosine residues of specific target proteins such as Raf-1, MAPK/Erk kinase, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1, which are part of the cascade of MAP kinases (mitogen-activated protein kinase). Then, FGF initiate signaling cascades inside the cell, where each kinase activates the following by phosphorylation, resulting in alterations of cellular functions. In addition, the FGF has a relevant role in anti-aging therapy because it is related to collagen and elastin synthesis activation responsible for skin resistance and elasticity, characteristics that are diminished with skin aging. Thus, the present article aims to review several scientific studies that demonstrated the cell signaling involved with the action of FGF on skin aging.

Hopes and Limits of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells (ADSCs) and Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) in Wound Healing

“…Recently, FGF has been proposed as a therapeutic option to avoid skin aging aspects and to counter the cellular responses related to aging [133,134]. Recombinant FGF also found application in improving angiogenesis and wound healing by strongly activating fibroblasts and keratinocyte proliferation [135,136].…”

Anti-Wrinkle Benefits of Peptides Complex Stimulating Skin Basement Membrane Proteins Expression

“…Decreased expression of ECM proteins and increased activity of ECM degrading enzymes, including various matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), as well as the structural impairment of filaments, are proposed to be underlying mechanisms for ECM impairment and have been major targets for conventional skin anti-aging strategies. Large numbers of studies have been published on the cosmetic ingredients for skin collagen synthesis stimulation, including ascorbic acid [22], retinol [23], natural extracts [24], growth factors [25] and collagen or its degraded forms [26]. Inhibition of ECM degradation, either through using MMP inhibitors, or down-regulating expressions of MMPs, is also suggested as an anti-aging regimen [27].…”

Nanomaterials for Skin Delivery of Cosmeceuticals and Pharmaceuticals

“…Growth factors are also included in cosmetics to stimulate collagen and elastin synthesis to repair the dermal extracellular matrix. ; being the most common the epidermal growth factor (EGF), transforming growth factor (TGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), insulin growth factor (IGF) and interleukin [51,128]. Herbal extracts and essential oils are another source of active cosmetic ingredients used against skin aging [15,29,31,59,60,66,[129][130][131][132].…”