Restylane®™ Restores Collagen, Slows Aging

The Rocky Mountain Laser Aesthetics uses two different high-tech lasers to address varying hair texture and skin color

March 2007
DENVER, CO—Recent studies have shown that Restylane®™, one of the newer filler agents used by plastic surgeons like Jeffrey R. Raval, MD, FACS to smooth facial imperfections, fill in wrinkles and enhance lips by plumping them up to their youthful shape and form, has an additional natural benefit. When injected multiple times over a span of time, Restylane has been found to stimulate the production of collagen, a basic skin protein.

This is particularly important, according to Jeffrey R. Raval, MD, FACS, owner and medical director of Rocky Mountain Laser Aesthetics. It can, he says, literally turn back the hands of time, putting back into the human body the ingredient that aging has removed--collagen. “As we age, we lose volume in our face and body. This volume is generated by collagen which naturally decreases over time.”

Sold in the United States to physicians by Medicis Pharmaceutical, Restylane was tested over 13 weeks. The test was based on injections in 11 volunteers ages 64 – 84 focused on the skin cells known as fibroblasts. Only within the last few years have scientists discovered that a basic problem in aging skin is caused by ultraviolet light and that the fibroblasts that make collagen deep, down in the skin. As we age, the collagen is stretched and collapses and flattens out on each other.

In a young person, fibroblasts make collagen. The study called for the stretched fibroblasts to be re-stretched and that’s exactly what happened. Stretching caused the cells to make collagen like they did when they were young. The renewed collagen formation began 3 to 4 weeks after the senior pool of patients received the Restylane injections. Besides re-stretching, the Restylane inhibited the breakdown of collagen by an enzyme that acts on aging skin.

The initial anti-wrinkle benefit of Restylane is its filler presence, filling in the scars or wrinkles. Restylane lasts longer after the first few injections one gets, a trait that’s thought to theoretically apply to all hyaluronic acid fillers. At the time of this study, Restylane was the only hyaluronic acid out there. Since then other hyaluronic fillers such as Juvederm™ have hit the market.

Obviously, further studies are needed to refine our knowledge of Restylane and its impact on collagen production, Dr. Raval adds. Add to that the additional filler products, some of which have been recently approved by the FDA and one of which is still awaiting approval—Perlane®.