INTRODUCTION
As skin ages, fine lines, deep wrinkles, dryness, and uneven texture begin to appear. Sun exposure, pollution, and unhealthy lifestyle choices result in chronic inflammation, degradation of collagen, and other manifestations of aging skin. These changes are associated with delayed wound repair and deregulation of the immune response, known as immunosenescence. At the same time, the skin’s protective, restorative, and mechanical abilities become slower with aging, resulting in more inflammation, collagen denaturation, and loss of skin firmness.1-4 Natural growth factors and the number and activity of fibroblasts are also reduced.5
Applied topically, growth factors (eg, platelet-derived, epidermal, transforming) and cytokines (eg, interleukins), are known to affect collagen biosynthesis, thus offering promise as therapeutic modalities in wound healing and skin rejuvenation.2,3 Such components, along with proteins (eg, immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, casein), carbohydrates, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals, are abundantly present in bovine colostrum, the initial milk produced by cows to meet the nutritional needs of the calf as well as provide biochemical and biological constituents to help the newborn survive and develop.6,7
As cells age, telomeres shorten via a process related to tissue damage.3 Telomeres are chromosomal “end caps†that protect eukaryotic chromosomes from degradation8,9 while also permitting the complete replication of linear DNA molecules.10 Human telomeres are long stretches of tandem repeats made up of TTAGGG.11
Telomere length is regulated by telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein with an RNA template that includes a sequence complementary to the telomere repeat unit. Telomerase is expressed in germ cells and in stem/progenitor cells while somatic cells have little or no telomerase activation, leading to a progressive loss of telomeres with each cell division.12,13
The primary objective of the present study was to determine the telomere length variables and cellular proliferation rates in cultures of adult primary fibroblast cells treated with bovine colostrum.
Applied topically, growth factors (eg, platelet-derived, epidermal, transforming) and cytokines (eg, interleukins), are known to affect collagen biosynthesis, thus offering promise as therapeutic modalities in wound healing and skin rejuvenation.2,3 Such components, along with proteins (eg, immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, casein), carbohydrates, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals, are abundantly present in bovine colostrum, the initial milk produced by cows to meet the nutritional needs of the calf as well as provide biochemical and biological constituents to help the newborn survive and develop.6,7
As cells age, telomeres shorten via a process related to tissue damage.3 Telomeres are chromosomal “end caps†that protect eukaryotic chromosomes from degradation8,9 while also permitting the complete replication of linear DNA molecules.10 Human telomeres are long stretches of tandem repeats made up of TTAGGG.11
Telomere length is regulated by telomerase, a ribonucleoprotein with an RNA template that includes a sequence complementary to the telomere repeat unit. Telomerase is expressed in germ cells and in stem/progenitor cells while somatic cells have little or no telomerase activation, leading to a progressive loss of telomeres with each cell division.12,13
The primary objective of the present study was to determine the telomere length variables and cellular proliferation rates in cultures of adult primary fibroblast cells treated with bovine colostrum.
