Hormones may have therapeutic potential to prevent wrinkles, hair graying

Until now, only a limited number of hormones, mainly topical retinoids (retinol and tretinoin) and estrogen which is typically used to treat side effects of menopause, have been used in clinical practice as anti-skin aging compounds. This study reviews a new class of hormones and their anti-aging properties.

"Our paper highlights key hormone players that orchestrate pathways of skin aging such as degradation of connective tissue (leading to wrinkling), stem cell survival and loss of pigment (leading to hair graying)," said lead author Markus Böhm, M.D., of the University of Münster in Münster, Germany. "Some of the hormones we studied have anti-aging properties and may be used in the future as agents to prevent skin aging."

The skin is the largest organ and undergoes both intrinsic (chronological) and extrinsic aging which is caused by environmental factors such as sun exposure.

"Skin is not only a target for various hormones that control pathways of skin aging but itself is certainly the largest and richest site for hormone production besides classical endocrine glands," Böhm said.

To better understand the connection between hormones and skin aging, the researchers studied the pivotal hormones controlling skin aging, including insulin-like growth factor 1, growth hormone, estrogens, retinoids and melatonin. Melatonin is especially interesting as a potential anti-skin aging substance as it is a small molecule, inexpensive, well-tolerated and a direct and indirect antioxidant as well as a regulator of mitochondrial metabolism. Some of the studied hormones, moreover, have astonishing and unexpected biological effects on skin function and hair aging as highlighted by distinct genetic deficiency syndromes.

They also reviewed the emerging roles of additional endocrine players, including α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (responsible for skin pigmentation), members of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid axis, oxytocin, endocannabinoids (found in CBD products) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor modulators and found they have very promising effects, e.g. on UV-induced genotoxic stress crucially involved in the development of photoaging and pigment synthesis within skin and hair.

"Further research into these hormones may offer opportunities to develop new therapeutics for treating and preventing skin aging," Böhm said.

The researchers received funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, the International Graduate School in Molecular Medicine Ulm, and the Medizinische Fakultät, Universität Ulm.