Abstract
Aged population is increasing in Japan. It is expected that people over 65 years of age will be more than 27 % of total Japanese in 2018. To activate the aged Japanese society, it is required to solve several problems of medical care, social service, employment and nursing care for aged. Young and healthy skin is considered to contribute to making healthy life span longer. Anti-aging medicine is now expected to keep Japanese population healthy till age over 75 years or more.
Skin anti-aging medicine determines the real skin aging of the patients by evaluating a number of pigmented spots, wrinkle length, dryness and elasticity of the skin. Based on the results obtained, patients are advised to treat aged skin in order to recover and keep younger skin.
In this lecture, the clinical, histopathological and molecular difference of aged skin and photo-aged skin is discussed, and the mechanisms of photo-aging and well explained, focusing on the damages of DNA caused by solar ultraviolet radiation.
Finally, protection of the skin against harmful adverse effects of solar radiation and treatment of photo-aged skin are summarized, including topical use and oral intake of antioxidants from small molecules to foods. Experimental and clinical evaluation of CoQ10 is introduced as one of the antioxidants available at present for skin anti-aging. (Online only)
