Skip to content

The secret to healthy (and youthful) skin is Top-It-Up (TIU)

TIU: Top It Up
What’s this?

As our skin ages, there will be two significant changes: a decrease in the production of growth factors and a fall in the supply of nutrients from the rest of the body. This means that cell division will slow down due to a lack of instructions to divide and the wherewithal to allow cells to grow and divide. This is the double whammy that will accelerate skin aging.

You will not notice a difference in your teen years, but you may when you reach your twenties and certainly in your thirties. What will you see? Thinning of the skin, wrinkles, laxity.

Oral vitamins will not help. Why? Part of the process of skin aging is that the body starts to “prefer” internal organs to the skin, and vascularization to the skin decreases, decreasing the supply of nutrients. What can you do? Because our skin is anything but impermeable, you can go the topical route.

Your skin needs extra growth factors and nutrition.

You may be very familiar with epidermal growth factor (EGF), the star of skin ingredients, the one that tells the skin it’s time to wake up and heal! This growth factor made the Nobel Prize committee designate Stanely Cohen and Rita Levi Montalcini as the Nobel Prize for Medicine winners in 1987. But don’t forget that there are more growth factors than EGF, like keratinocyte growth factor KGF. If you miss KGF, you will miss out on many benefits.

How are EGF and KGF different? They are different proteins, have different structures, and bind to different receptors. This means that their effects will be different.

In what way are Skin Actives EGF and KGF similar?  Cosmetic EGF and KGF proteins are identical to our own; they will do a similar job and not cause allergies (similar structure, the body can’t tell the difference), the product of safe scientific advances that add to your everyday skin and hair care.

About KGF:

This growth factor has been proven to stimulate hair growth in laboratory studies. It also accelerates healing and increases skin volume. It may also help prevent hair loss during radiation therapy during cancer treatment. Keratinocyte Growth Factor (KGF) binds to the KGF receptor on the cell surface, acting as both a growth and survival factor by stimulating epithelial cell proliferation, differentiation, and migration and promoting a number of cell protective mechanisms. KGF is also known as FGF-7 and heparin-binding growth factor-7 (HBGF-7). KGF is a member of the fibroblast growth factor family and has been found to stimulate hair growth. Cells that respond to KGF do so because they have receptors on the cell membrane that recognize the growth factor, usually produced by cells near or far from the target cell. The binding of the growth factor to the receptor initiates a cascade of molecular events that eventually lead to cell division, among other effects. Keratinocyte growth factor has been shown to regulate proliferation and differentiation in epithelial tissues and may regulate the stem cells of the hair follicle.

Other relevant posts:

How to use KGF for hair restoration.

Use KGF for your DIY (do it yourself) projects

What you can do for your nails

How to help thin skin

Get healthier hair

 

 

References

Beer, HD, Bittner, M, Niklaus, G, Munding, C, Max, N); Goppelt, A, Werner, S (2005) The fibroblast growth factor binding protein is a novel interaction partner of FGF-7, FGF-10 and FGF-22 and regulates FGF activity: implications for epithelial repair. Oncogene, 24: 5269-5277

Braun, Susanne, Krampert, Monika, Bodo, Enikoe, Kuemin, Angelika, Born-Berclaz, Christiane, Paus, Ralf, Werner, Sabine. (2006) Keratinocyte growth factor protects epidermis and hair follicles from cell death induced by UV irradiation, chemotherapeutic or cytotoxic agents J. Cell Science, 119: 4841-4849

Danilenko, Dimitry M.; Ring, Brian D.; Yanagihara, Donna; Benson, William; Wiemann, Bernadette; Starnes, Charles O.; Pierce, Glenn F. (1995) Keratinocyte growth factor is an important endogenous mediator of hair follicle growth , development, and differentiation. Normalization of the nu/nu follicular differentiation defect and amelioration of chemotherapy induced alopecia. American Journal of Pathology 147: 145-54.

Guo, Lifei; Degenstein, Linda; Fuchs, Elaine (1996) Keratinocyte growth factor is required for hair development but not for wound healing. Genes & Development 10:165-75.

Karvinen, S; Pasonen-Seppanen, S; Hyttinen, JMT; Pienimaki, JP; Torronen, K, Jokela, TA; Tammi, MI, Tammi, R (2003) Keratinocyte growth factor stimulates migration and hyaluronan synthesis in the epidermis by activation of keratinocyte hyaluronan synthases 2 and 3. J Biol Chem, 278:49495-49504

Werner S. (1998) Keratinocyte growth factor: a unique player in epithelial repair processes. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 9:153-65. doi: 10.1016/s1359-6101(98)00010-0. PMID: 9754709.Jang, JH (2005) Stimulation of human hair growth by the recombinant human keratinocyte growth factor-2 (KGF-2). Biotechnology Letters, 27:749-52

 

DISCLAIMER: These claims have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, cure, treat or prevent any disease.