Abstract
Several non-invasive two-dimensional techniques with different lateral resolution and measurable depth range have proved to be useful in assessing and quantifying morphological changes in skin ageing. Among these, only in vivo microscopy techniques permit histometric measurements in vivo. Qualitative and quantitative assessment of chronological (intrinsic) age-related (IAR) morphological changes of epidermis, dermo-epidermal junction (DEJ), papillary dermis (PD), papillary-reticular dermis junction and reticular dermis (RD) have been performed by high-definition optical coherence tomography in real time 3-D. HD-OCT images were taken at the internal site of the right upper arm. Qualitative HD-OCT IAR descriptors were reported at skin surface, at epidermal layer, DEJ, PD and upper RD. Quantitative evaluation of age-related compaction and backscattered intensity or brightness of different skin layers was performed by using the plugin plot z-axis profile of ImageJ® software permitting intensity assessment of HD-OCT (DICOM) images (3-D images). Analysis was in blind from all clinical information. Sixty, fair-skinned (Fitzpatrick types I–III) healthy females were analysed retrospectively in this study. The subjects belonged to three age groups: twenty in group I aged 20–39, twenty in group II aged 40–59 and twenty in group III aged 60–79. Only intrinsic ageing in women has been studied. Significant age-related qualitative and quantitative differences could be noticed. IAR changes in dermal matrix fibers morphology/organisation and in microvasculature were observed. The brightness and compaction of the different skin layers increased significantly with intrinsic skin ageing. The depth of visibility of fibers in RD increased significantly in the older age group. In conclusion, HD-OCT allows 3-D in vivo and real time qualitative and quantitative assessment of chronological (intrinsic) age-related morphological skin changes at high resolution from skin surface to a depth of the superficial reticular dermis.
Highlights
Skin ageing has become an important health market [34]
In this study we presented morphological features of sunprotected skin visualized in 3-D by HD-optical coherence tomography (OCT) in women belonging to three different age groups
The terminology and study design of the in vivo confocal microscopy studies [30, 51] dealing with skin ageing related morphological changes of epidermis and superficial dermis have been adapted to the High-definition OCT (HD-OCT)
Summary
Skin ageing has become an important health market [34]. Many of the treatments offered claim to modulate processes involved in skin ageing. Testing the efficacy of these therapies is important for consumers, dermatologists, cosmetic industry and regulatory authorities [36, 44]. For the assessment of molecular mechanisms involved in intrinsic skin ageing, invasive tests are clearly the gold standard [2, 32, 50]. The invasive nature of skin biopsy is not the most suitable method to investigate skin ageing in the general population. Skin ageing is a physiological process and, for obvious ethical reasons, efficacy testing of anti-ageing treatments should be based on non-invasive methods [11]
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