For immediate release: September 20, 2002.
For more information, contact Susan Griffith, 216-368-1004 or sbg4@po.cwru.edu

CLEVELAND—Skin does more than wrinkle with age. Researchers from around the world are reporting new findings and research on the aging of skin as they meet in Cleveland for the Second International Symposium on the Science and Technology of Skin Aging, sponsored by L'Oreal Recherche and Case Western Reserve University.

More than 30 world experts on skin are making presentations, September 18-20, during the symposium at the Cleveland Renaissance Hotel in downtown Cleveland.

Daniel Asselineau from L'Oreal Recherche of Clichy, France, and Arnold Caplan, director of CWRU's Skeletal Research Center, have not only organized the conference but are researchers concerned about how the skin-the body's largest organ and major defense against disease-functions in older years. They are making presentations that eventually will help solve the medical question of how to keep skin younger and healthier.

This is the second international symposium sponsored by the research and development division of L'Oreal. Through its commitment to basic research, L'Oreal, one of the world's leaders in skin and hair products, provides these symposiums as a forum for scientists to exchange ideas and information, according to Caplan. The first international symposium took place two years ago in Lyon, France, and focused on artificial skin for burn patients and the study of cell and molecular skin tissue.

"Knowing what happens to the skin is becoming increasingly important," Caplan said.

By the year 2008, it is projected that more than 25 percent of the population will be older than 65 years. Knowing the health consequences of aging skin will help this group stay healthier.

"For too long, people have taken the skin for granted. Doctors use skin as a window into how people are feeling, but as people grow older, it becomes less useful. We want to know why," said Caplan, who, wiith funding from L'Oreal, conducts basic research on the skin and how it ages and produces wrinkles.

Asselineau's research is in the area of photoaging and the biological effects produced by ultraviolet sunrays. His research in recreating skin in the lab is geared toward finding ways to protect the skin against sun damage. Symposium presentations will explore various areas of skin research:

• Cellular and molecular mechanisms of skin aging: Among the presenters will be Vincent Monnier from CWRU's School of Medicine. He will report on how skin collagen undergoes dramatic age-related changes. In a study of the skin of 10 mammalian species, he has found a link between diet and related chemical processes that harden the collagen over time. Dietary restriction can delay this stiffening. For diabetics, the process is twice the rate of a nondiabetic individual and can be related to the early onset of medical problems associated with aging.
• Photoaging: Ultraviolet or sunlight damage to the skin has lasting effects. Among the presenters will be John Voorhees from the University of Michigan's department of dermatology. While a sunburn heals in a few days, Voorhees says each UV exposure "causes a microwound that is imperfectly repaired (microscar) by the normal wound-healing process." He will talk about how over time these microscars produce photoaging of the skin.
• Aging and skin repair: One of the highlights of this session will be Mark Ferguson's talk revealing the effects of aging on the body's ability to repair wounds. The researcher from the University of Manchester in England will discuss how embryos can heal without scarring, while scarring begins to occur at different rates at birth and throughout life. He will discuss the transforming growth factors involved in healing and inflammatory responses to wounds-especially in the elderly who have slow inflammatory responses that can lead to chronic, nonhealing wounds.
• Skin care and biotechnology: Human skin is at its peak in the late 20s and early 30s. Calvin Harley from the Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, Calif., will discuss the multiple interacting factors, such as sun damage and natural aging, that influence cellular and extracellular structures and functions. He will talk about the function of telomeres, genetic elements on the ends of chromosomes, and what happens when they are present or absent. According to Harley, "telomerase is permanently turned on in essentially all cancer cells."

For information, call CWRU's Skeletal Research Center at 216-368-3562.

–CWRU–

 

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