Artificial Youth: Polymer Used to Temporarily Tighten Skin

Scientists at MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital, Living Proof, and Olivo Labs have recently developed a new material that can temporarily protect and tighten skin and smooth wrinkles. A few more development and it can be used to deliver drugs to help treat skin condition like eczema and other types of dermatitis.

The material is a silicone-based polymer that could be applied on the skin like a thin, invisible coating that copies the mechanical and elastic characteristics of a healthy and youthful skin. While conducting tests with human subjects, researchers found out that the material was able to reshape the bags under the lower eyelids and also improve the hydration of the skin. According to MIT News, the researchers described this type of "second skin" can also be suitable to give a long-lasting ultraviolet protection.

"It's an invisible layer that can provide a barrier, provide cosmetic improvement, and potentially deliver a drug locally to the area that's being treated. Those three things together could really make it ideal for use in humans," says Daniel Anderson, an associate professor in MIT's Department of Chemical Engineering and a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES).

Science Daily reported that the researchers made a library of more than 100 potential polymers which contained a chemical structure known as siloxane. It is a chain of alternating atoms of silicon and oxygen, according to experts. These polymers can be assembled into an arrangement called a cross-linked polymer layer (XPL). Researchers then tested the material to look for one that would best copy the appearance, strength, and elasticity of a healthy skin.

"It has to have the right optical properties, otherwise it won't look good, and it has to have the right mechanical properties, otherwise it won't have the right strength and it won't perform correctly," Langer says. The material found to be the best had elastic properties which are similar to those of skin. During the laboratory tests, it simply went back to its original state after being stretched for more than 250 percent. Skin experts said that the natural skin can be elongated about 180 percent.

In laboratory tests, the new XPL elasticity performed much better than the other two types of wound dressings now being used on skin; silicone gel sheets and polyurethane films. The researchers conducted several studies in humans to test if the material is safe and effective. They applied the XPL to "eye bags" which usually forms as skin ages. They found that the protrusion caused by these eye bags was steadily compressed resulting to the tightening of the skin. This effect lasted for 24 hours.

In another study, the material was applied to the forearm skin to test its elasticity. When the XPL-treated skin was stretched with a suction cup, it went back to its original position quicker than untreated skin.