52 ANTI-AGEING
Anti-ageing skincare: learning from nature
Harald van der Hoeven - CLR
Skin ageing represents a major concern for the consumer and virtually every skincare brand addresses this with its products. Consequentially, the anti-ageing skincare market is extremely saturated. To stand out from the masses, some brands
focus strongly on the science of skin ageing, whereas other (arguably most) brands let quick and new, but not necessarily effective innovations prevail. In the light of the current developments in the anti-ageing skincare market, it is opportune to zoom out and look down on what actually is skin ageing. Some 5,000 years ago, people lived up to Jumping to the year 1900, the
40 years of age.1
average life expectancy in Germany was 43.3, in the US 48.2 and in Egypt 32.9 years. In those almost 5,000 years life expectancy
did not significantly increase. In 2020, life expectancy in Germany was 81.1, in the US 78.8 and in Egypt 71.7.2
Whereas human life
expectancy did not change much in thousands of years, in the last 120-odd years it almost doubled. From an evolutionary point of view,
we as modern Homo sapiens are in a disadvantageous situation; we are essentially not ‘programmed’ to live as long as we do. Our body, including our skin, is still ‘not used to’ becoming older than 45-50 years old. Our increased life expectancy comes with
many burdens, such as the increased risk of developing cancer or heart diseases. Relevant to the cosmetic industry, this burden expresses itself in the consumer’s large interest in using anti-ageing skincare products.
Healthy ageing - learning from long- lived mammals In the context of the fact that we modern humans are not biologically able to age very well, and our need to keep our skin looking as youthful as long as possible, it is particularly interesting to look at other mammalian species which have evolved much more effectively than we have. Ageing is a global decline of physiological
functions, leading to an increased susceptibility to diseases and ultimately death.3
Some long-
lived animal species have developed molecular mechanisms to extend life span and maintain health during ageing. Healthy ageing, if you will. In essence, these species have developed mechanisms to protect themselves from cancer. This is interestingly described by the fact that
PERSONAL CARE January 2024
cancer-related mortality can reach up to 90% in mice, which have a maximum lifespan of four years. The African elephant, however, which can live up to 65 years, has a strikingly low (4.8%) cancer mortality rate. The longest-lived mammal known, the
bowhead whale, can live to more than 200 years old. Like the African elephant, it is not highly cancer-prone.4
A closer look at mammals
that show high longevity and high health (and, arguably, youthful looks) reveals their extremely well-developed ability to repair DNA in their cell nuclei. They maintain their genome extremely well, in comparison to mammalian species which are short-lived. DNA repair can be considered a genuine longevity assurance system.5
is not different for plants and trees.6
Interestingly, this A species’
ability to repair DNA is key in the species’ ability to live long and healthily.
DNA repair in human ‘good agers’ With the use of whole-genome sequencing technologies it is now possible to analyse human ageing as well. In a recent study,7
a
comparison was made between so-called semi- supercentenarians, people who reach 105 years of age and ‘normal’ people. Some 81 semi-supercentenarians (mean
age: 106.6) were compared with 36 unrelated healthy volunteers (mean age: 68.0) in order to gain understanding about extreme longevity and healthy human ageing. The semi-supercentenarians were shown to be characterized by a genetic background associated with efficient DNA repair mechanisms, underlining that DNA repair is also a crucial player for healthy ageing in humans. DNA is the only biologic molecule in the human body that relies solely on repair, without any remanufacture. It accumulates damage over a lifetime.8
DNA damage stands at the basis of
cancer and ageing and both can be delayed by reducing the load of DNA damage, as described above for some long-lived mammals, trees and human ‘good agers’.
Dramatic effects of DNA damage in skin ageing It is not surprising that accumulation of DNA
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