Skin ageing: changes of physical properties of human skin in vivo

We have investigated in vivo the change with age of various parameters that describe the physical properties of skin. The parameters were derived from pressure/displacement curves obtained by applying reduced pressure to a small area of skin and measuring the resulting displacement by 20 MHz scan echography. By fitting the pressure/displacement curves to a theoretical model, the following skin parameters were obtained: E, Young's modulus or stiffness (in Pascals); sigma(0), the initial stress (in Pascals); and the unrestored energy ratio (UER), an index related to cutaneous non-elasticity. These parameters, which are used in mechanics to define the intrinsic physical characteristics of materials, were measured for the first time on volar forearm skin of 206 male and female subjects, aged between 6 months and 90 years. The results showed that skin thickness increases until maturity and decreases for women over 50-60 years old, Young's modulus E increases linearly with age, and ageing is divided into two phases for natural stress, sigma(0) and the non-elasticity index UER. Natural stress sigma(0) increases until maturity and then rapidly decreases. The non-elasticity index decreases until puberty and steadily increases after puberty. This new procedure provides a simple quantitative assessment of the physical properties of the skin, revealing that the skin becomes thinner, stiffer, less tense and elastic with ageing.