Amorepacific Develops Fundamental Technology for Skin Cell Rejuvenation with KAIST

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Amorepacific Technical Research Center, in collaboration with KAIST, has developed a fundamental anti-aging technology that reverses aged human dermal fibroblasts back to young cells.

The research, conducted jointly by Professor Kwanghyun Cho's team from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering at KAIST and the Systems Biology group, was published in the online edition of the internationally renowned journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Aged cells exhibit significantly reduced division capacity, leading to slower regeneration and deterioration of tissue function. In aged skin cells, the ability to produce collagen and elastic fibers notably decreases, resulting in slower skin regeneration, thinning of the skin, and wrinkle formation. Additionally, weakened skin barriers cause dryness, itching, and frequent skin troubles due to external stimuli.

Amorepacific Technical Research Center, through industry-academic collaboration with Professor Kwanghyun Cho’s team at KAIST, developed the first aged artificial skin model and confirmed that aged human dermal fibroblasts can be reverted to young cells.

Moreover, they developed a signaling network model related to skin cell aging. By simulating this model, they identified key factors necessary to revert aged skin cells to young skin cells and developed an initial fundamental anti-aging technology and validation model to regulate these factors.

The research outcome is significant in that it discovered the reversibility potential of skin aging, which was previously considered irreversible, allowing the skin to become young again. By regulating the newly discovered key factors in the aged artificial skin model, Professor Kwanghyun Cho’s team confirmed that the reduced collagen synthesis increased again and skin regeneration ability was restored.

This demonstrates the possibility of overcoming the limitations of existing technologies by reverting senescent cells, which have stopped dividing, back into young cells capable of division. Such anti-aging technology is expected not only to aid in the regeneration of aged skin but also to help predict and suppress the onset of geriatric diseases, thereby contributing to the extension of human healthy lifespan.

Park Wonseok, head of the Fundamental Innovation Research Institute at Amorepacific Technical Research Center, stated, "Through this joint research, we were able to develop an aging signaling network model and an aged artificial skin model, and confirmed the possibility of reversing skin aging to a younger state. Going forward, Amorepacific will continue its best efforts to protect the health of customers worldwide by actively slowing down or improving aging, which has been accepted as an unstoppable flow of time, based on advanced research in skin and bio fields."

Meanwhile, based on the results of this joint research, Amorepacific Technical Research Center is currently developing cosmetics that improve skin wrinkles by extracting key components from Camellia extract that regulate skin aging.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.