There are a lot of new BUZZ words in anti-ageing therapies. Here is a breakdown of what I think each of them are and how I think each of them works.
I have been going to a lot of Beauty Therapy classes lately and it seems to me, that in order to make beautiful skin you need to damage it and instigate ultimate repair. The more you damage it (within reason) the faster you see results.
Some of these factors below are what the beauty industry is now trying to harness to achieve glowing results with beautiful skin. I am hoping that being forearmed with this information it will help you make an educated evaluation on which beauty treatments might be the ones for you.
What are Platelets?
When skin is damaged, platelets block up the injury
Platelets are not only the smallest blood cell, they are the lightest. Therefore they are pushed out from the center of flowing blood to the wall of the blood vessel. There they roll along the surface of the vessel wall, which is lined by cells called the endothelium. The endothelium is a very special surface, like Teflon, that prevents anything from sticking to it. However when there is an injury or cut, and the endothelial layer is broken, the tough fibers that surround a blood vessel are exposed to the liquid flowing blood. It is the platelets that react first to injury. The tough fibers surrounding the vessel wall, like an envelope, attract platelets like a magnet, stimulate shape change, and platelets then clump onto these fibers, providing the initial seal to prevent bleeding, the leak of red blood cells, and plasma through the vessel injury.
What is a Fibroblast?
Fibroblasts make collagen and are critical to wound healing
A fibroblast is a type of cell that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen the structural framework (stroma) for animal tissues and plays a critical role in wound healing. Fibroblasts are the most common cells of connective tissue in animals.
Fibroblasts make collagens, glycosaminoglycans reticular and elastic fibers, glycoproteins found in the extracellular matrix and cytokine TSLP. Growing individuals’ fibroblasts are dividing and synthesizing ground substance. Tissue damage stimulates fibrocytes and induces the mitosis of fibroblasts.
Mouse embyonic fibroblasts (MEFs) are often used as “feeder cells” in human embryonic stem cell research.
What are fibroblast growth factors?
There are many different types of growth factors but for beauty and anti-ageing we will talk about FGF
Fibroblast Growth Factors stimulate the regrowth of tissue
As well as stimulating blood vessel growth, FGFs are important players in wound healing. FGF1 and FGF2 stimulate angiogenesis and the proliferation of fibroblasts that give rise to granulation tissue, which fills up a wound space/cavity early in the wound healing process. FGF7 and FGF10 (also known as Kerotinocyte Growth Factors KGF and KGF2, respectively) stimulate the repair of injured skin and mucosal tissues by stimulating the proliferation, migration and differentiation of epithelial cells, and they have direct chemotatic effects on tissue remodeling.
Growth factors promote scarless healing and the deposition of normal woven collagen rather than scar collagen.
Growth factors will only work on healthy cells…they do not effect cancer cells (for example)
What is Plasma?
Plasma is the part of blood that holds most of the repairing particles.
Blood plasma is the yellow liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid (all body fluid outside of cells). It is mostly water (93% by volume) and contains dissolved proteins, glucose, clotting factors, mineral ions, hormones and carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation). Blood plasma is prepared by spinning a tube of fresh blood containing an anticoagulant in a centrifuge until the blood cells fall to the bottom of the tube. The blood plasma is then poured or drawn off. Blood plasma has a density of approximately 1025 kg/m3, or 1.025 kg/l.
What are Stem Cells?
Stem cells rebuild cells
Stem cells exhibit 2 characteristics not found in other cells…they are able to divide and make copies of themselves indefinitely, a capacity known as self-renewal.
They can give rise to a wide range of mature cell types. They replenish the body’s cells as they age and are lost and for constructing the body itself from a tiny number of cells during development.
Many of the body’s cells die off and need to be replaced…..this is what stem cells do, for every type of cells.
Tissue regeneration is probably the most important possible application of stem cell research.
In taking a line from Nu Skin, as we age and our cells turn over we become like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of ourselves so the pristine, plump, beautiful ‘us’ in our youth becomes a faded copy of ourselves. In using the new technologies of Platelet Rich Plasma treatments (PRP) and dermal needling, and stem cell creams, we stimulate the production of collagen and elastin, growth factors and stem cells within our bodies to rebuild and replenish our old selves, bringing us to a refreshed, glowing beautiful youthful look, without even the need for toxins being introduced to our bodies, using only our own body’s rebuilding properties….Of course I still love Dysport® into my forehead and a touch into the chin to stop that grumpy look myself haha…..such a non purist.