Current Topical Strategies for Skin-Aging and Inflammaging Treatment: Science versus Fiction.

Aging is a natural phenomenon that affects the whole body, including the skin. As we age, endogenous and exogenous factors cause our skin to become thinner, paler, and wrinkled. Although the underlying mechanisms of the pathogenesis of skin aging are not entirely known, multiple pathways have been proposed. Inflammaging has recently emerged as a pathway that correlates aging and age-related diseases with inflammation. This review discusses the role and pathways of inflammaging that lead to skin aging. Moreover, strategies and current topical approaches for skin-aging treatment are discussed. Studies over the past 10 years suggested that DNA damage and oxidative stress are the most critical mechanisms in skin aging, and both are interlinked with inflammaging. Several treatments for skin aging have been considered such as antioxidants, hormone replacement therapy, and vitamins. To deliver anti-aging agents topically, researchers adopted numerous approaches to enhance skin penetration including physical, chemical, or biomaterial enhancers and carrier-based formulations. In recent years, consumers' demands for anti-aging products have considerably risen, leading to robust growth in the anti-aging market. Therefore, further in-depth studies are necessary to understand skin-aging mechanisms and evaluate the efficacy of anti-aging products to protect consumers worldwide by providing them safe and effective over-the-counter skin-aging formulations.