Stretch Marks Prevention & What Our Biology Dictates For Stretch Mark Treatment
Anti stretch mark treatments operating in harmony with the physiology of the skin can prevent or treat stretch marks more effectively.
Better choices can be made by understanding that the skin matrix, composed of the intercellular elements that serve as scaffolds for the different structural elements of the skin, is in charge of the skin's mechanical properties, including firmness, strength, suppleness, and elasticity.
Stretch marks are linear atrophic lesions of skin from a few millimetres up to fifteen centimetres (0.60 inches).
Stretch marks are tears in a skin matrix affected by atrophy, a condition characterized by exactly the contrary of those just mentioned.
Yes, skin injured by stretch marks is weak, thin, rough, sagging, stiff, and its tissues are decreased in size when compared to healthy tissues. Also areas with stretch marks have diminished cellular proliferation, and decreased function, also called atrophia.
The skin matrix is a precious resource which is both produced and consumed quite often during our lives. On one side, skin matrix is continuously synthesized by fibroblasts. On the other side, whenever it is damaged, malformed or worn out, skin matrix –particularly the structural proteins collagen and elastin- is broken down into particles by collagenase and gelatinase enzymes, also known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) and then recycled. By digesting or chopping up key matrix proteins, such as collagen and elastin, MMP enzymes play an underappreciated yet critical function in skin physiology.
A balance between collagen synthesis and collagen degradation
In healthy or youthful skin, the synthesis and degradation of the matrix are in order: damaged or redundant matrix is degraded while the deficit is replenished by the continuous synthesis. Unfortunately, this complicated balance gets interfered because of hormonal imbalances, malnutrition, or and as we age, too little of the matrix is synthesized and too much is degraded. As with any supply-demand imbalance, it can be brought back to balance by either augmenting supply (boosting synthesis of the matrix) or reducing demand (inhibiting the breakdown).
In particular, the synthesis of elastin is physiologically important, although elastin is only 2% of the total protein in the dermis. These skin fibers supply the resiliency of skin. Elastin synthesis and the regulation of the quantity of cross-linked insoluble elastin and collagen fibers depend on the interaction between three factors.
The first is the presence of active fibroblasts, which exude the soluble precursor of elastin, tropoelastin. The second is the relative amount of several skin matrix components within the dermis also exuded by fibroblasts. The third are enzymes that are in charge of both the cell degradation progressions that allows the breakdown of dead cells into their component amino-acids and their renewal for the creation of new proteins (amino-acid chains).
So be careful of any "stretch mark cream" that contain soluble collagen and/or elastin, they will NOT do the trick. What is needed is the biosynthesis and appropriate self-assembly of complex skin structures from inside out your body. The first step in elastic fiber formation is the manifestation of small cell surface-associated elastin globules (soluble tropoelastin) that enlarge in size with time (microassembly). The elastin globules are afterwards transferred to pre-existing elastic fibers in the extracellular matrix where, through an intricate and coordinated biological process, they coalesce into larger structures (macroassembly) and become crosslinked funtional fiber-like polymers with reversible deformation and high resilience.
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