As a dermatologist at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, Amy Vandiver sees how aging affects the skin. For older patients, these changes go beyond appearance. Years of accumulated damage can make skin more vulnerable to disease and injury, affecting health, function and quality of life.

Vandiver, a member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, studies how cellular damage contributes to aging. Her research focuses on mutations in mitochondrial DNA and how these changes influence the behavior of skin cells.

Her own skincare routine is notably simple. At night, she uses a prescription retinoid, while her morning routine includes a lipid-based moisturizer and mineral sunscreen. She occasionally uses vitamin C serum and undergoes laser treatment roughly every two years, reflecting her evidence-based approach to skincare.

Vandiver believes chronological age does not tell the whole story. People of the same age can have very different levels of biological aging, and individual tissues may age at different rates. Skin offers a valuable way to study these differences because it is easily accessible and records decades of environmental exposure, including sunlight.

Her laboratory is particularly interested in mitochondria, which contain their own DNA and play an important role in cellular function. Mitochondrial DNA can accumulate mutations over time, particularly in sun-exposed skin. Vandiver’s team is investigating whether this damage is simply a marker of aging or whether it directly contributes to changes in how cells function.

Using stem cells, genomic sequencing and 3D skin models, the researchers are examining how mitochondrial damage affects different types of cells and whether damaged mitochondria can be cleared or corrected.

The broader goal is to understand how molecular damage builds up with age and whether these changes can eventually be prevented, slowed or reversed. For now, Vandiver emphasizes evidence-based strategies such as protecting skin from ultraviolet radiation, maintaining the skin barrier and choosing well-studied treatments over unproven anti-aging trends.

Source: https://stemcell.ucla.edu/news/how-do-our-bodies-age-dermatologist-looking-skin-answers