Impact of oxytocin on skin ageing

Summary Intrinsic skin aging is skin aging affected by natural factors within the body, such as hormones, rather than by external factors like UV light or smoking. Skin ageing causes the appearance of wrinkles, skin sagging and reduced elasticity. Like elsewhere in the body, skin ageing involves an increase in the proportion of cells undergoing cellular senescence (a type of deterioration due to age). Senescent skin cells called dermal fibroblasts have several characteristics that are different to cells that are not senescent, including having what is known as a senescence‐associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Oxytocin (OT) is a neuropeptide hormone that has many beneficial effects in the body, including protection against age‐related disorders. However, less is known about the role of OT in intrinsic skin aging. The authors looked into the role of oxytocin in prevention against senescence in skin cells called normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDFs), taken from female donors of different ages. They found that OT suppressed SASP‐induced senescence in NHDFs derived from young but not old female donors. The authors were also able to learn more about the processes within the body by which OT suppresses SASP and why it affects younger women differently to older women. Their results demonstrate that oxytocin may be effective in the prevention of skin aging. Linked Article: Cho et al. Br J Dermatol 2019; 181:1216–1225