Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathophysiology of various age-related diseases and skin aging. Supraphysiological levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS)—such as hydrogen peroxide, superoxide anions, and hydroxyl radicals—severely damage proteins, DNA, and lipids, which results in further … Continue reading
The physiological cellular respiration located at mitochondria is always comes with the byproduct of the aerobic metabolism where a small fraction of the oxygen is constantly converted to superoxide anions, hydrogen peroxide, hydroxyl radicals, and other ROS. Although within a … Continue reading
The cellular telomere length has been the predictor of life span according to the telomere theory of aging. Telomere is the region of repetitive nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from … Continue reading
Integrins are α β heterodimeric transmembrane receptors that mediate the attachment (adhesion) between a cell and the tissues that surround it, such as other cells or the extracellular matrix (ECM) in the skin epidermis and dermis. There are a number … Continue reading
The dermal epidermal junction (DEJ) in the skin is the layer responsible for supporting the epidermis and epidermal-dermal adhesion and for the communication between epidermal and dermal cells. Traditionally, the study of the mechanisms of skin aging has overlooked this … Continue reading
Hyaluronan (also called hyaluronic acid or hyaluronate or HA) is an anionic, nonsulfated glycosaminoglycan distributed widely throughout connective, epithelial, and neural tissues. Hyaluronan is a polymer of disaccharides which is composed of D-glucuronic acid and D-N-acetylglucosamine. In the dermal connective … Continue reading
The ground substance occupies the space between the cells and fibers of dermal connective tissues. It is an amorphous viscoelastic gel in which the other components (cells and fibers) are held in place . Ground substance consists largely of proteoglycans … Continue reading
Fibronectin is a glycoprotein of the extracellular matrix that binds to extracellular matrix components such as collagen, fibrin, heparan sulfate proteoglycans (e.g. syndecans) and membrane-spanning receptor proteins called integrins. Fibronectin exists as a protein dimer, consisting of two nearly identical … Continue reading
Tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP) is a group of endogenous enzymes that inhibit the activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), which is a group of peptidases involved in degradation of the extracellular matrix. . There are four different TIMP identified – … Continue reading
Decorin is an extracellular matrix proteoglycan belonging to the small leucine-rich proteoglycan (SLRP) family with a protein core containing leucine repeats with a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chain of either chondroitin sulfate (CS) or dermatan sulfate (DS). Decorin, together with versican (bind … Continue reading