Last week I talked about stem cells in skin care and mentioned growth factors. What are growth factors?
Just as their name implies, growth factors are chemicals that stimulate cell growth. They cause cells to divide, grow, and differentiate. They are made by stem cells.
Remember cytokines from that article? Cytokines release signals so that cells can talk to each other. Many cytokines are growth factors.
Growth factors are required for wound healing. They are used widely in the medical industry to accelerate tissue repair.
In skin, growth factors are needed for collagen replacement or repair. There are 150-300 kinds found naturally in skin.
The major one in skin is called Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF). Epidermal Growth Factor stimulates the growth of epithelial cells, especially keratinocytes and fibroblasts. It also attracts repair cells to a wound site to speed up the healing process.
In skincare products, the role of growth factors is to stimulate fibroblasts to make more matrix proteins (e.g. collagen, elastin) and to repair skin. When you have more structural proteins, skin thickens and the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles improves.
The growth factors in skincare products come from bovine sources (cows) and plants. Stem cells are harvested in a culture, and their growth factor secretions are collected. The actual stem cells are left behind, and the growth factors are added to products. There is no risk of infection or tissue rejection this way.
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