The beauty market abounds with high-end creams and serums that claim the use of stem cells to rejuvenate aging skin.
Selling on the internet and at department stores like Nordstrom, these products promise “
breakthrough” applications to plump, smooth, and “reverse visible signs of aging,” and at least
one product
offers to create a “regenerative firming serum, moisturizer, and eye
cream” from customers’ own stem cells – for a whopping $1200.
The beauty industry is heavily hyping glimmers of the nascent field of stem cell therapy.
Steeped in clinical-sounding terms like “
proteins and peptides from pluripotent stem cells,”
the marketing of these products evokes a dramatic restoration of
youthfulness based on cutting-edge science. But the beauty industry is
heavily hyping glimmers of the nascent field of stem cell therapy.
So what is real and what’s not? And is there in fact a way to harness the potential of stem cells in the service of beauty?
Plant vs. Human Stem Cells
Stem cells do indeed have
tremendous promise
for treating a wide range of diseases and conditions. The cells come
from early-stage embryos or, more commonly, from umbilical cord blood or
our own bodies. Embryonic stem cells are considered the body’s
“master” cells because they can develop into any of our several hundred
cell types. Adult stem cells, on the other hand,
reside in mature tissues and organs like the brain, bone marrow, and skin, and their versatility is more limited.
As an internal repair system for many tissue types, they replenish sick, injured, and worn-out cells.
Nowadays, with some sophisticated chemical coaxing, adult stem cells can
be returned to an embryonic-like blank state, with the ability to become any cell type that the body might need.
Beauty product manufacturers convey in their advertising that the
rejuvenating power of these cells could hold the key to the fountain of
youth. But there’s something the manufacturers don’t always tell you:
their products do not typically use human stem cells.
“The whole concept of stem cells is intriguing to the public,” says
Tamara Griffiths, a consultant dermatologist for the British Skin
Foundation. “But what these products contain is plant stem cells and,
more commonly, chemicals that have been derived from plant stem cells.”
The plant stem cells are cultured in the lab with special media to
get them to produce signaling proteins and peptides, like cytokines and
chemokines. These have been shown to be good for reducing inflammation
and promoting healthy cell functioning, even if derived from plants.
However, according to Griffiths, there are so many active ingredients in
these products that it’s hard to say just what role each one of them
plays. We do know that t
heir ability to replenish human stem cells is extremely limited, and the effects of plant stem cells on human cells are unproven.
“…any cosmetic that is advertised to be
anti-aging due to plant stem cells at this time is about as effective as
all the skin creams without stem cells.”
Whether products containing plant cell-derived ingredients work
better than conventional skin products is unknown because these products
are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and may rest
on dubious, even more or less nonexistent, research. Cosmetics
companies have conducted most of the research and the exact formulas
they devise are considered proprietary information. They have no
incentive to publish their research findings, and they don’t have to
meet standards imposed by the FDA unless they start using human cells in
their products.
“There are biological limits to what you can do with plant cells in
the first place,” says Griffiths. “No plant stem cell is going to morph
into a human skin cell no matter what magic medium you immerse it in.
Nor is a plant cell likely to stimulate the production of human stem
cells if applied to the skin.”
According to Sarah Baucus, a cell biologist, for any type of stem
cell to be of any use whatsoever, the cells must be alive. The
processing needed to incorporate living cells into any type of cream or
serum would inevitably kill them, rendering them useless. The splashy
marketing of these products suggests that results may be drastic, but
none of these creams is likely to produce the kind of rejuvenating
effect that would be on par with a facelift or several other surgical or
dermatological procedures.
“Plant stem cell therapy needs to move in the right direction to
implement its inherent potential in skin care,” researchers wrote in a
2017
paper in the journal
Future Science OA.
“This might happen in the next 20 years but any cosmetic that is
advertised to be anti-aging due to plant stem cells at this time is
about as effective as all the skin creams without stem cells.”
From Beauty Counter to Doctor’s Clinic
Where do you turn if you still want to harness the power of stem
cells to reinvigorate the skin? Is there a legitimate treatment using
human cells? The answer is
possibly, but for that you have to
switch from the Nordstrom cosmetics counter to a clinic with a lab,
where plastic surgeons work with specialists who culture and manipulate
living cells.
Plastic surgeons are experts in wound healing, a process in which
stem cells play a prominent role. Doctors have long used the technique
of taking fat from the body and injecting it into hollowed-out or
depressed areas of the face to fill in injuries, correct wrinkles, and
improve the face’s curvature. Lipotransfer, or the harvesting of body
fat and injecting it into the face, has been around for many years in
traditional plastic surgery clinics. In recent years, some plastic
surgeons have
started to cull stem cells from fat. One procedure that does just that is called cell-assisted lipotransfer, or CAL.
In CAL, adipose tissue, or fat, is harvested by liposuction, usually
from the lower abdomen. Fat contains stem cells that can differentiate
into several cell types, including skin, muscle, cartilage, and
bone. Fat tissue has an especially stem cell-rich layer. These cells are
then mixed with some regular fat, making in effect a very stem
cell-rich fat solution, right in the doctor’s office. The process of
manipulating the fat cells takes about 90 to 110 minutes, and then the
solution is ready to be injected into the skin, to fill in the lips, the
cheeks, and the nasolabial folds, or the deep folds around the nose and
mouth.
Unlike regular fat, which is often injected into the face,
some experts claim
that the cell-enriched fat has better, longer-lasting results. The
tissue graft grows its own blood vessels, an advantage that may lead to a
more long-lasting graft – though the
research is mixed, with some studies showing they do and other studies showing the complete opposite.
For almost all stem cell products on the
market today in the U.S., it is not yet known whether they are safe or
effective, despite how they are marketed.
One of the pioneers in CAL, a plastic surgeon in Brazil named Dr.
Aris Sterodimas, says that the stem cells secrete growth factors that
rejuvenate the skin — like the plant stem cells that are used in topical
creams and serums. Except that these cells
are human stem cells and hence have inherently more potential in the human body.
Note that CAL doesn’t actually result in large numbers of fresh, new
replacement cells, as might be imagined. It’s simply fat tissue treated
to make it richer in stem cells, to have more of the growth-inducing
proteins and peptides delivered to the dermis layer of the skin.
Sterodimas works alongside a tissue engineer to provide CAL in his
clinic. He uses it as a way to rebuild soft tissues in people disfigured
by accidents or diseases, or who are suffering the after-effects of
radiation treatments for cancer.
Plastic surgeons get plenty of these patients. But how widespread is
CAL for beauty purposes? Sterodimas says that he regularly performs the
procedure for Brazilians, and it’s widely available in Europe and Japan.
In the U.S., the procedure hasn’t taken off because there is no FDA
approval for the various methods used by different doctors and clinics. A
few major academic centers in the U.S. offer the treatment on a
clinical trials basis and there are several
trials ongoing.
But there is a downside to all lipotransfers: the transplanted fat
will eventually be absorbed by the body. Even the cell-enriched fat has a
limited lifespan before reabsorption. That means if you like the
cosmetic results of CAL, you’ll have to repeat the treatment about every
two years to maintain the plumping, firming, and smoothing effects on
the skin. The results of CAL are “superior to the results of laser
treatments and other plastic surgery interventions, though the effect is
not as dramatic as a facelift,” says Sterodimas.
Buyer Beware
For
almost all
stem cell products on the market today in the U.S., it is not yet known
whether they are safe or effective, despite how they are marketed.
There are around
700 clinics in the U.S. offering stem cell treatments and up to
20,000 people have received these therapies. However, the
only FDA-approved
stem cell treatments use cells from bone marrow or cord blood to treat
cancers of the blood and bone marrow. Safety concerns have prompted the
FDA to
announce increased oversight of stem cell clinics.
As for CAL, most of the clinical trials so far have been focused on
using it for breast reconstruction after mastectomy, and results are
mixed. Experts warn that the procedure has yet to be proven safe as well
as effective. It’s important to remember that this newborn science is
in the early stages of research.
One question that has also not been definitively settled is whether
the transplanted stem cells may give rise to tumors — a risk that is
ever-present any time stem cells are used. More research is required to
assess the long-term safety and effectiveness of these treatments.
Given the lack of uniform industry standards, one can easily end up at a clinic that overpromises what it can deliver.
In the journal
Plastic Reconstruction Surgery in 2014, Adrian McArdle and a team of Stanford University plastic surgeons
examined
the common claims of CAL’s “stem cell facelifts” being offered by
clinics across the world. McArdle and his team write: “…the marketplace
is characterized by direct-to-consumer corporate medicine strategies
that are characterized by unsubstantiated, and sometimes fraudulent
claims, that put our patients at risk.” Given the lack of uniform
industry standards, one can easily end up at a clinic that overpromises
what it can deliver.
But according to McArdle, further research on CAL, including clinical
trials, is proceeding apace. It’s possible that as more research on the
potential of stem cells accrues, many of the technical hurdles will be
crossed.
If you decide to try CAL in a research or clinical setting, be
forewarned. You will be taking part in a young science, with many
unknown questions. However, the next time someone offers to sell you
stem cells in a jar, you’ll know what you’re paying for.
The Real Science Behind “Anti-Aging” Beauty Products
