Page 7 - Read Online

Topic: Biomaterials for Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery

Biomaterials for facial aging

Wen-Guo Cui , Xin Zhao , Yu-Guang Zhang 3
1
2
1 Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Orthopedic Institute Soochow University, Suzhou
215006, Jiangsu, China.
2 The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi’an
Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, Shaanxi, China.
3 Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Ninth People’s Hospital Affilicated to Medical School of Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Shanghai 200011, China.
Address for correspondence: Prof. Wen-Guo Cui, Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University,
Orthopedic Institute Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, Jiangsu, China. E-mail: wgcui@suda.edu.cn

Dr. Wen-Guo Cui is a Professor in Orthopedic Institute at Soochow University. He received his PhD’s degree in
Materials Science (Biomaterials) from Southwest Jiaotong University in 2009. He then joined the Med-X Institute
of SJTU until 2012, and Soochow University. After that he consecutively pursued research training at Harvard
University until 2015. He now leads a multidisciplinary translational medical research using micro- or nanoscale
biomaterials for tissue regeneration and drug delivery applications.

Fountain of youth has always been the dream of mortals collagen, human collagen, hyaluronic acid and autologous
since the ancient time. Since ages ago, mortals have fat and are often used to treat nasolabial folds. They are
always been searching for ways to stay and look young. mainly from animal source and will degrade upon time
In the new millennia, retaining a youthful appearance (3-12 months) and thus can only be used as temporary
is no longer a dream beyond reach. The advancement filler. Semi-permanent fillers include poly-l-lactic acid and
in medical technology, especially in the dermatological calcium hydroxylapatite. These fillers are biocompatible
technology, has made the dream of youth possible. and do not show significant adverse effect when tested
on patients. They will gradually degrade in vivo upon the
The signs of aging often begin with the largest organ of formation of replacement tissues. Permanent fillers, e.g.
human body, i.e. the skin. Facial wrinkles are the prominent the most frequently used silicone, is often used to treat
sign of aging caused by facial volume loss under the skin, severe facial volume loss. They are very advantageous for
which will lead to skin sagging. The key to retain youth rely prosthetic reconstruction that requires excessive surgical
thus on prevention and treatment of wrinkles. As minimally intervention and low maintenance.
invasive treatment, the emergence of intradermal fillers
has excited the plastic surgeons. The injectable dermal With the increase in demand for non-surgical
fillers can be injected into the sagging skin to fill in the dermatological enhancement, the world has placed a lot of
lost volume to rejuvenate facial appearance. focus in search of various intradermal fillers that can suite
the patients’ demand. Young adult need it for youthful
These intradermal fillers are divided into three categories feature enhancement, middle aged adult need it for early
which are biodegradable/non-permanent fillers, semi- prevention or volume restoration, while the mature need it
permanent fillers, and permanent fillers. Biodegradable/ for the delay and maintenance of aging related syndrome.
non-permanent fillers include bovine collagen, porcine
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix,
Access this article online tweak and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited
Quick Response Code: and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Website:
http://parjournal.net For reprints contact: service@oaepublish.com
How to cite this article: Cui WG, Zhao X, Zhang YG.
DOI: Biomaterials for facial aging. Plast Aesthet Res 2016;3:70-1.
10.20517/2347-9264.2016.5
Received: 10-02-2016; Accepted: 15-02-2016
70 © 2016 Plastic and Aesthetic Research | Published by OAE Publishing Inc.