The skin is more than an envelop which wraps our body, it protects us against environmental aggressions. This tiny frontier shows our identity and allows a constant dialogue between the inside and the outside of the body to keep our balance. The skin is a real mirror of our internal life. As stated in my previous articles, the skin contains 3 main parts : The Epidermis, the Dermis and the Hypodermis.

On top of these compartiments, the skin shows what I call « the Youth Interfaces ». Basically you get an upper Youth Interface, the Stratum Corneum. The medium Youth Interface is named the DEJ = Dermo Epidermal Junction. As far as the deepest one, it is located in the dermis, it is the Extracellular matrix.

I will discuss on this article the medium Youth Interface structure, the Dermo Epidermal Junction. This important part of the skin is built to show « wrinkles » or waves when the skin is young, I illustrated it in my below Alexriolab sketch.

After an excess of sun (the extrinsic aging) and also with the chrono-aging of our body (the intrinsic aging), the DEJ tends to become flat ! Not the best for our beauty as this key part of the skin truly stretched the upper surface to keep it smoothed and free of wrinkles. When the DEJ is flattening, the wrinkles begin…

Many factors are involved in the flattening of the DEJ, among those ones, the most important is the sun and its damages. The excess of sun triggers some tiny glutton enzymes called Metalloproteinases which attack and breakdown the fiber structures and other elements of the DEJ. The architecture of the DEJ is complex however one can see it like the wires of a bridge. Key structure elements are Collagen IV, Laminin, Perlecan and Nidogen to ensure its upholding and stretch function.

It is essential to keep the « wrinkles » of the DEJ in the skin so less wrinkles will appear outside the skin! Nourish, protect and take care of your skin everyday, you will not regret it 😉 !

Alexandre R Rio.