Naweko San-Joyz

The Latest Acne Scar Treatments Could Come from You

Are you searching near and far for a way to say “adios” to your acne scars. You could literally be staring the solution in the face. That is because researchers are now investigating ways to use your own skin cells as a dermal filler to correct facial imperfections like acne scars, indentations and deep wrinkles.

Your skin cells, or fibroblasts, make the protein collagen, which gives skin its plump, youthful appearance in addition to helping repair skin damage. However, as the skin ages, collagen production slows down and the skin produces more proteins that actually cause the breakdown of collagen proteins.

Skin imperfections like acne scarring or deep wrinkling are the direct result of the loss or destruction of collagen.

For years, dermal fillers that contain silicon or bovine collagen have become a mainstay for replacing the skin's missing collagen and correct scars and wrinkles. Some drawbacks of these types of skin correctives are the costs that can range from $200-$350 per area treated. Moreover, the results are not permanent since they may last just six months to a year before the patient needs another cosmetic treatment.

Now researchers are taking advantage of evidence that injections of fibroblast cells promote collagen production and increase the skin's thickness to create a new generation of skin correcting dermal fillers.

According to a recent study in "Dermatology Surgery", researchers have cultured human fibroblasts in order treat facial imperfections like acne cicatrices and facial wrinkles.

In the study, researchers injected patients that had facial deformities like scars or indentations with living fibroblast cells or a placebo that consisted of a liquid that lacked the living cells. Study volunteers received the injections at one to two weeks intervals.

After the initial injections, investigators observed the patients' treated areas at monthly intervals for one year. After nine months, patients who received the living fibroblast cell injections noticed a 75% improvement in the appearance of their facial marks and scarring.

Before you will see fibroblast injections at your local medical spa, this novel biomedicine will have to earn FDA approval. Nevertheless, persons who are allergic or unresponsive to bovine based collagen injections may soon have a new option for deleting acne scars and wrinkles.

Source: Weiss, Robert A, Margaret A. Weiss, Karen L. Beasley & Girish Munavalli. Autologous Cultured Fibroblast Injection for Facial Contour Deformities: A Prospective, Placebo-Controlled, Phase III Clinical Trial. Dermatologic Surgery, March 2007, vol 33, no 3, pp. 263-268(6).

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