INTRODUCTION
The concept of 'anti-aging' has been openly used for many years to describe a wide range of changes, from smoothing fine lines and wrinkles to improving hydration and pigmentation. This terminology is gradually being replaced by a new term, longevity, which is also very broad and often difficult to interpret. Of course, these factors matter to patients, but the underlying biological processes we've identified over the past two decades—related to a decline in skin health and resilience—are not well represented. These biological processes affecting skin longevity and resilience include ECM degradation, fragmentation and collapse, DEJ effacement and flattening, barrier protection dysfunction, loss of cellular energy and mitochondrial function, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), and the eventual buildup of senescent cells along with chronic 'inflammaging'. In large part, these changes occur as cells grow weary and become less active due to the buildup of these ROS and other degenerative intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
The hallmarks of aging, initially defined in 2013 by López-Otín1 et al and later refined in 2023,2 establish a biological framework for cellular aging that includes, among others, genomic instability, mitochondrial dysfunction, telomere attrition, epigenetic changes, altered autophagic response, and stem cell exhaustion. These factors are especially relevant to the skin, representing cellular exhaustion that manifests in skin aging and decreased longevity.
It is essential to understand that the term 'skin longevity' should not be confused with the concept of lifespan extension related to chronological age, where significant efforts and large financial investments are made to increase overall lifespan with limited tangible results so far. Skin longevity, or more accurately, skin activation, based on the biological processes mentioned above, has seen considerable progress in recent years. Our experience in this area is shared here. An additional semantic point worth noting is that we have deliberately described the
The hallmarks of aging, initially defined in 2013 by López-Otín1 et al and later refined in 2023,2 establish a biological framework for cellular aging that includes, among others, genomic instability, mitochondrial dysfunction, telomere attrition, epigenetic changes, altered autophagic response, and stem cell exhaustion. These factors are especially relevant to the skin, representing cellular exhaustion that manifests in skin aging and decreased longevity.
It is essential to understand that the term 'skin longevity' should not be confused with the concept of lifespan extension related to chronological age, where significant efforts and large financial investments are made to increase overall lifespan with limited tangible results so far. Skin longevity, or more accurately, skin activation, based on the biological processes mentioned above, has seen considerable progress in recent years. Our experience in this area is shared here. An additional semantic point worth noting is that we have deliberately described the
