Skin Changes From Aging Depend On Genetic Factors, Study Finds

There is a rapid increase in the aging population worldwide. In the United Stated, estimates indicate that almost 40 percent of population in the country will be over 65 years of age by 2030.

As an individual lives longer, the person’s skin becomes biologically or chronologically aged and it gets exposed to several environmental factors, like sunlight. These factors can cause the skin some age-related damages.

Apart from environmental factors, the aging of a person’s skin greatly depends on their ethnicity, according to a study. The study found that genetic factors can delay aging in some people. For example, the African American population may experience aging much later than their white counterparts.

The review study published in the journal Clinics In Dermatology analyzed more than 40 articles published between 1970 and 2018 through PubMed. All the previous studies focussed on the association between skin aging and ethnicity.

The information in the articles suggested that environmental factors, such as ultraviolent rays from the sun, can damage all types of skin types. Among this damage caused from exposure to ultraviolet rays are loss of collagen, skin discoloration and skin cancer. But the effects of skin aging vary depending on the key differences in melanin and fibroblasts, the review study reported.

“Aging is inevitable, and each person will have a unique experience with how their skin changes as it ages,” study author Neelam Vashi, who is the director of the Center for Ethnic Skin at Boston Medical Center and an associate professor of dermatology at Boston University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

Fibroblasts, which is a type of cell that promote collagen production and wound healing, “account for increased skin thickness of African-American patients, resulting in wrinkles that appear several years later than (in their) white counterparts,” the research stated.

The study further stated that East Asian people are likely to experience hyper pigmentation early in the aging process, but the appearance of wrinkles will be delayed in them. Also, Hispanic people will experience delay in the appearance of wrinkles.

However, people of Caucasian descent, such as the North African, European and Southwest Asian ancestry, commonly have thinner skin. So, they experience loss of skin elasticity, wrinkles and reduced lip volume early in the aging process.