Age-related changes in skin bio-mechanical properties: the neck skin compared with the cheek and forearm skin in Korean females.

Background: There are many reports on regional variations in skin bio-mechanical properties, but few studies have been performed on the neck. The neck is sun-exposed and continues to move so the neck skin can be more apt to aging.

Methods: The skin properties of the neck, cheek, and ventral forearm of 58 Korean female volunteers in good health (25-64 years old, 42.3 ± 11.7) were assessed non-invasively with skin measuring devices, and the correlation with age and wrinkles was analyzed.

Results: Neck skin was more extensible, elastic and visco-elastic than the cheek. The dermal layer for the neck skin was thinner and more intense than the cheek, but the results were opposite when compared with the skin of the forearm. We could observe that the subcutaneous layer was divided by the fascia with regard to the neck skin, and this thickness increased BMI-dependently. The neck skin had the correlation between R0, R3, and dermal thickness. The correlation coefficient of elasticity on the neck with ages was -0.550 and the elasticity on the neck skin was highly negatively correlated with age than any other sites. Therefore, this bio-mechanical property was important for determining the aging. TEWL was correlated with ages for only neck skin(R = 0.368). We found that the wrinkles on the neck were correlated with age, the elasticity, skin color (L*), TEWL.

Conclusion: The biomechanical properties of the neck skin were highly correlated with age than skin parameters of other sites. These results were influenced by constant movement and sun-exposure, and therefore, the neck wrinkles were apt to form.