JLE

European Journal of Dermatology

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What is photoaged skin? Volume 11, issue 2, March - April 2001

Author
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, USA.
  • Page(s) : 165-7
  • Published in: 2001

Photoaging is the term used to describe the clinical and histological findings in chronically sun-exposed skin. Kligman first described the hallmark histological signs of chronically sun damaged skin viz, accumulation of disorganized, coarse bundles of fibers which stained for elastic tissue and termed this elastosis. In the 30 years since that landmark observation, a wide variety of clinical and histological changes have come to be associated with chronic ultraviolet damage to skin. The clinical consequences are responsible for the majority of undesired clinical features associated with aging and so called "premature aging of skin". Until relatively recently, it was believed that most of these changes were the result of UVB damage and that UVA was relatively "safe". There now is commanding evidence to implicate UVA as a major pathophysiological factor in photoaging.