Oxidative Stress Status and Its Relationship to Skin Aging

Skin and cellular aging are impacted by various toxins in our environment such as air pollution, water contamination, an increased prevalence of light-emitting diodes, electromagnetic frequencies, various yeast and other fungi, parasitic infections, and mold and heavy metal toxicity. Basic topical skin care is insufficient to adequately protect an individual's integumentary system and other organs from these types of daily cellular stressors. These stressors impact the level of oxidative stress status (OSS). OSS is measurable through biomarker analysis of various body fluids including blood, saliva, urine, and breath. This poses a unique assessment challenge for aesthetic practitioners as the OSS of a patient impacts their overall aging process. Aesthetic practitioners observe the aging process through visual assessment of a patient's skin quality, skin barrier function, and the presence of solar lentigines, erythema, edema, telangiectasia, loss of collagen and elastin, bone density, and redistribution of subcutaneous tissue. Mitigating a patient's daily exposure to OS and its impacts on the skin, other organ tissues, and metabolism poses a unique challenge in medical aesthetic treatment planning. For this reason, the use of stem cells and exosomes is gaining popularity in aesthetic medicine. The purpose of this literature review is to highlight currently available research, applications, limitations, and mitigation strategies in reducing OSS on the integumentary system and aging processes.