Role of stretched skin buckling in wrinkle formation clarified
- John Evans
- Jul 25
- 2 min read
New experimental evidence confirms that aging skin is more prone to buckling when stretched, resulting in the formation of wrinkles.
The findings were published in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.
Examining human skin samples, a research team at Binghamton University in Vestal, NY, led by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Guy German, PhD, found that buckling that occurs as skin contracts perpendicular to the direction of stretching becomes more pronounced with age.
“This is no longer just a theory,” said Dr. German, in a news release from the university. “We now have hard experimental evidence showing the physical mechanism behind aging.”
Scientists have long believed that skin wrinkles with age due to several factors, including genetics, pathological conditions, and solar photodamage. Previous research using computational models has shown changes in the mechanical properties and structure of the dermal layer that occur with aging; however, this has never been experimentally validated with actual skin samples until now.
This research is one of Dr. German’s lifetime goals, a “Holy Grail” in skin mechanics, he said. He said that the marketing messaging surrounding commercial anti-aging products can make it difficult to identify effective products.
“When I got into this field, that was one of my goals—can I figure out aging?” said Dr. German.
“Because if I look at the TV, the radio, online, at shops, I’m being told 1,000 different things about how to improve my skin health, and I want to know what’s right and what isn’t. And so I thought I’d skip to the end and try and figure it out myself.”
Dr. German and former Binghamton graduate student Abraham Ittycheri, along with undergraduate student Alejandro Wiltshire, used a low-force tensometer to stretch strips of skin from individuals aged 16 to 91, simulating the forces the skin naturally experiences.
They found that when skin is stretched in one direction, it contracts in the other direction. However, this contraction increases with age, leading to the formation of wrinkles.
“If you stretch Silly Putty, for instance, it stretches horizontally, but it also shrinks in the other direction—it gets thinner. That’s what skin does as well,” said Dr. German. “As you get older, that contraction gets bigger. And if your skin is contracted too much, it buckles. That’s how wrinkles form.”
Your skin has one set of mechanical properties when you’re young, but as you get older, things begin to change and get a bit “wonky,” said Dr. German.
“Things degrade a bit, and it turns out the skin stretches laterally more, which causes the actual wrinkles that form,” said Dr. German. “And the reason why that exists in the first place is that your skin is not in a stress-free state. It’s actually stretched a little bit. So there are inherent forces within your skin itself, and those are the driving force towards wrinkles.”
Dr. German noted that premature aging from spending chronic periods out in the sun can have the same effect on your skin as chronological aging.
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