Researchers study the mechanisms of skin aging
The aging process is most apparent on the skin. In the newly opened "SKINMAGINE" (Multimodal Imaging of Aging and Senescence of the Skin) Christian Doppler Laboratory, dermatologists from MedUni Vienna have joined forces with biotechnologists from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna and chemists from Vienna University of Technology, as well as the company Chanel, to study the interaction of metabolism, cellular communication and cellular quality control in skin aging accelerated by environmental stress.
Skin aging does not happen in isolation but in interaction with the environment and changing processes in the body as a whole. It is accelerated by the "urban exposome", the combined impact of factors such as environmental pollution and sunlight. Normal skin aging and skin aging accelerated by the urban lifestyle affect lipid, protein and glucose metabolism, the capacity for regeneration and communication in the tissue. "We want to analyze at a cellular level the interaction of the mechanisms that contribute to skin aging with the greatest possible optical, chemical and biochemical precision," explains Laboratory Director Florian Gruber from MedUni Vienna's Department of Dermatology.