Skin ageing and oxidative stress in a narrow-age cohort of older adults

PurposeSkin ageing is not a monolithic entity, but comprises several related sets of features. We sought to determine the number of related sets of skin ageing features and test whether these were associated with environmental exposures and measures of oxidative stress.Subjects and methodsFacial skin ageing features were scored by three independent raters from photographs on a narrow-age, community-resident cohort at age 83 years. Smoking, sun exposure (indoor or outdoor occupation), social class, body mass index, 8-hydroxy-2’-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG, a measure of oxidative DNA damage) and Trolox Equivalent Antioxidant Capacity (TEAC, a measure of antioxidant capacity) were measured as independent predictors of skin ageing. Skin ageing feature items with adequate inter-rater reliability were entered into an ordinal factor analysis to determine factor structure. Extracted factors were correlated with independent predictors of skin ageing.ResultsTwo hundred and fourteen (102 male, 112 female) photographs were considered to be of adequate quality for rating by all three raters. Inter-rater reliability was acceptable (Kendall's w > 0.6) for ten of the 16 scale items. Three factors were extracted, relating to pigmented spots, wrinkles and facial sagging, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed sex (P < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.605), BMI (P = 0.004, partial η2 = 0.063) and social class (P = 0.005, partial η2 = 0.061) to have significant effects on skin ageing. For participants with oxidative stress measures, in addition to sex and social class, 8-OHdG was positively associated with skin ageing (P < 0.001, partial η2 = 0.152), but not TEAC (P = 0.13).ConclusionIn this elderly cohort, skin ageing was associated with increased levels of oxidative stress.