Sunday Times 2
The secret to eternal youth
View(s):The secret to the fountain of youth lies in awakening ‘sleeping’ stem cells in the skin, according to new research.
A computer model found that as we grow older, we lose the ability to trigger these ‘master cells’ to kick into action and regenerate damaged skin.
British and U.S. scientists say the breakthrough may open the door to the development of better beauty treatments to zap wrinkles for good.
In the longest study of its kind, they carried out a complex virtual simulation to test the three most popular hypotheses of how our skin regenerates over three years.
Engineer Dr Xinshan Li said: ‘The theory which seems to fit best says skin has a population of “sleeping” stem cells, which sit in the lowest layer of the skin but do not constantly divide to make new cells.
‘However, these sleeping cells can be called into action if the skin is damaged, or if the numbers of other types of more mature skin cells decrease, ensuring the skin can be constantly regenerated under all conditions.’
Stem cells are the ‘master cells’ of the body, with the potential to become many different cell types.
‘Each time we wake up these cells, to heal a wound or replenish stocks of other cells, a few of them do not go back into sleep mode, so the population slowly reduces,’ Dr Li said.
‘This explains why older skin is slower to heal and in part why our skin changes as we age. By understanding this mechanism better, it might be possible to find ways to combat the effects of ageing on our skin.’
The ability to follow virtual skin models over decades may be especially important to skin cancer research.
Environmental damage caused by ultraviolet radiation or chronic wounding can cause sleeping cells to harbour the mutations which cause skin cancers such as basal cell carcinoma, a very aggressive type of skin cancer.
Dr Li said: ‘The stem cells can harbour mutations throughout the years, but with no effect if they are still in sleep mode.
‘However, when they start to divide to heal a wound for example, this could trigger the cancer.
‘If it is possible to study this phenomenon for long periods of time it may be possible to find ways to prevent the activation of mutated cells and therefore reduce the risk of developing the disease.’
Other parts of the body, such as the lung or gut lining and the cornea, also regenerate in the same way as our skin.
© Daily Mail, London
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