I have been studying hyaluronic acid for many years. From a pharmacological point of view, I can say that it is one of the most biocompatible (body-like) substance used by contemporary aesthetics and medicine. Each person has hyaluronic acid in the body since birth, a body of an adult has approximately 15 grams of hyaluronic acid throughout half of which is in the skin. (3; 4)
The human body works very intensively with hyaluronic acid. Daily, it breaks down and re-creates approximately 1/3 (30%) (5) of the total amount of hyaluronic acid, which is a lot! The formation of new hyaluronic acid slows down with age (like many other processes in the body). If the formation of a new hyaluronic acid slows down, its total amount in the body begins to decline. (6) The rate of loss of hyaluronic acid from the skin is relatively high, every 10 years approximately 6% of the total amount of hyaluronic acid. (2)
Nowadays, physicians usually compensate for the natural loss, for example in the form of dermal (skin) fillings used in face wrinkle corrections, or inject orthopedics into large joints (most commonly knees) to alleviate the effects of damaged articular cartilage.
In skin and epidermis, hyaluronic acid has two important functions:
- Filling the intercellular spaces of the skin (the so-called matrix)
- Binding large amounts of water (hyaluronic acid naturally “locks” itself).
Hyaluronic acid does not affect the function of mimic nerves (4) (as opposed to, for example, botulinum toxin).
After increasing the amount of hyaluronic acid, the skin is tightened and looks natural and fresh.