Leveraging hormones could be key to preventing and treating signs of ageing such as wrinkles and hair greying, new research suggests.
The study, published in the Endocrine Society journal Endocrine Reviews, has identified several hormones with anti-ageing properties that could lead to breakthrough treatments.
Until now, only a limited number of hormones have been used in clinical practice as anti-skin ageing compounds.
For their latest study, researchers looked at pivotal hormones that control skin ageing pathways, including insulin-like growth factor 1, growth hormone, estrogens, retinoids and melatonin.
Hormones like melatonin have shown promising anti-ageing properties
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The skin is the largest organ and undergoes both intrinsic (chronological) ageing and extrinsic ageing caused by environmental factors like sun exposure.
Some of these hormones have shown promising anti-ageing properties in the research.
Melatonin has emerged as particularly promising for anti-ageing treatments, according to the researchers.
It is described as “a small molecule, inexpensive, well-tolerated and a direct and indirect antioxidant as well as a regulator of mitochondrial metabolism.”
These properties make melatonin especially interesting as a potential anti-skin ageing substance.
The researchers also reviewed other promising hormones including α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, which is responsible for skin pigmentation.
Members of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis, oxytocin, endocannabinoids and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor modulators were also studied.
These showed “very promising effects” on UV-induced genotoxic stress involved in photoaging and pigment synthesis within skin and hair.
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Hormone leveraging could have a role in future anti-ageing treatments
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“Skin is not only a target for various hormones that control pathways of skin ageing but itself is certainly the largest and richest site for hormone production besides classical endocrine glands,” said lead author Dr Markus Böhm of the University of Münster in Germany.
Dr Böhm added that the hormones they studied “have anti-ageing properties and may be used in the future as agents to prevent skin ageing”.
“Further research into these hormones may offer opportunities to develop new therapeutics for treating and preventing skin ageing.”