Mouse blastocyst showing stem cells, originally uploaded by Dad of girls.
Sometimes my friends in medicine and science don’t really understand my obsession with beauty products.
“Isn’t that all quasi-science?” one of them recently asked. (Obviously, she hasn’t been reading my blog, but that’s a different issue entirely). Unfortunately, stem cells in skin care right now are basically quasi-science: The theory is proven, but their efficacy is not. Let me explain, beginning first with natural stem cells:
How Natural Stem Cells Keep You Young & Healthy
Skin stem cells lie dormant in the uppermost layer of the skin (epidermis) and at the base of hair follicles, until signals released during times of disease or injury stimulate them to divide. Stem cells are often called pluripotent because they are capable of synthesizing a number of different tissues, but when skin stem cells are activated in their native environment, they only stimulate the growth of new skin cells. These new skin cells, called keratinocytes, give the skin a fresher, younger appearance when they reach the skin’s surface.
How Stem Cell Skin Care Works
Currently, there are three main classes of stem cell technology in skin care:
1.) Non-human stem cells. Proposed to preserve DNA length through cycles of multiple cellular growth/division.
2.) Telomerase. Proposed to preserve DNA length through cycles of multiple cellular growth/division.
3.) Specific polypeptides (protein fragments). Stimulate stem cells to divide.
Types 1 and 2: Non-Human Stem Cells and Telomerase in Skin Care
Skin care with stem cells: LifeLine Skin Care
Skin care with telomerase: ReVive Peau Magnifique (shown above)
A telomere is a piece of DNA at the end of your chromosomes. It protects the ends of your chromosomes from being lost through DNA replication by adding multiple repeats of a short DNA sequence to the ends of chromosomes, known as telomeres. As we age, it has been noted that telomere length naturally shortens, with telomere length at age 80 being about half what it was when you were 18 years old (Cosmetic Dermatology). Patients with Werner’s Syndrome, a rare disease in which aging is accelerated, also have much shorter chromosomes. So it is no wonder there is such an interest in developing agents to increase or preserve the size of your telomeres!
Naturally, human telomeres will only shorten until they reach a length known as the “Hayflick limit.” At this point, these cells start to die, and cell division occurs so a new generation of cells is available. The Hayflick limit is increased (and your DNA better protected) with nutrients like carnosine, and decreased with stressors like emotional abuse, physical trauma, etc., as discussed in Biochemical and Biophysical Communications.
In skin care creams, companies will often incorporate either non-human stem cells or bioengineered telomerase in an effort to incorporate more DNA-preserving telomerase into skin cells. Unfortunately, most dermatologists are skeptical of this, as Dr. Ellen Marmur, M.D., the Chief of Dermatologic and Cosmetic Surgery and Associate Professor at Mount Sinai Medical Center,
says, “I have yet to see strong, objective scientific studies that prove [telomerase or polypeptides] are able to penetrate the skin and interact with stem cell synthesis.” I, for one, was always skeptical that enzymes in a skin care cream could penetrate cellular and nuclear membranes and be accepted into the cell, but Barbara Gilchrest of Boston University School of Medicine has been able to demonstrate how a lotion containing a small fragment of DNA is able to stimulate DNA repair, in both in vitro (in petri-dish) and rodent-based studies (Simple Skin Beauty, 2009).
However, even if telomerase in skin care creams migrates into the skin cell nuclei, I don’t know if it would even preserve your DNA: Patients with lupus are known to have increased amounts of telomerase within their cells, but have not been documented to have lengthened or better-preserved DNA. Furthermore, as much as I hate to say it, I don’t even know if we want more telomerase activation. As shown in this 1994 study by Bodnar et. al., telomerase is reactivated in cancer cells. All in all, this technology falls into a grey area right now.
Type 3: Stem Cell Creams with Specific Polypeptides
Example: Amatokin, Elite Telomere Cell Cream
More often than including non-human stem cells or telomerase, stem cell-related skin care products will include a polypeptide component that boosts stem cell differentiation. The most popular of these is Amatokin, a cream manufactured by Voss Laboratories, with a sequence of proteins called “polypeptide #153.” The company claims Russian scientists developed polypeptide #153 to assist burn victims with tissue regeneration and skin recovery, but has not released any public studies of the cream’s efficacy at this time.
I’m often curious in dermatology as to how much we want to increase versus decrease skin cell life cycles. For instance, acne patients benefit from therapies that increase cell turnover, such as retinoids, salicyclic acid, and glycolic acid. Increased rates of skin cell cycling are also associated with youth. Yet with each round of cycling, DNA shortens, even microscopically, though never past the Hayflick limit, unless the stress induced to your skin causes the Hayflick limit to lower. On the other hand, therapies containing resveratrol and sirtuins preserve cells, meaning that it will be a longer period of time before these cells die and release signals stimulating the next round of cells to divide. Further, patients with rosacea often notice an improvement from gentle therapies that prolong skin cell life, like Atopalm or purified petrolatum. So, again, it’s hard to say whether or not we really want to have therapies that signal our stem cells to divide in the first place.
Bottom Line
Stem cell therapy is inevitable in the future of medicine. Yet, in this early part of the 21st century, the technology is not well-regulated or understood, even though it is often marketed in skin care. I wish one of the companies producing stem cell therapy-based skin care would release studies of their ingredient’s efficacy, both in short- and long-term trials. At any rate, as exciting as this technology is, I refuse to partake until I read some strong scientific studies.
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Excellent post.
The other problem with stem cells in cosmetics is that if they actually did work as marketers would have you believe, they would no longer be cosmetics but rather drugs. At least, in the US.
I got peau as a gift and the results were just awesome. How ever the truth is if you can’t follow the results up with the rest of revive,which is very costly but worth every penny,they stop. I love this skin care line but to expensive for my bank account.
They also suggest twice a year use at $1,500!!