Word: collagenous
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...slurry that was injected under Weissman's skin was human collagen, served up under the brand names CosmoDerm and CosmoPlast. But it is hardly the most exotic substance being shot into women's faces these days. More than half a dozen "dermal fillers" are already available on the U.S. market or may be soon--a witches' brew of injectables that includes cow collagen, liquid silicone, plastic microbeads, synthetic bone and the ground-up skin of human cadavers...
...principle is simple. While Botox works by paralyzing the facial muscles that help form wrinkles, fillers plump up wrinkles from within the dermis, or inner skin. Most of them do so by replenishing collagen. As we age, sun damage and pollution turn collagen--the protein scaffolding that holds the inner skin firm--into protein mush. At the same time, the dermis begins to lose much of the moisture it once retained, and it becomes parched, withered and incapable of keeping the outer skin taut. "Fillers give youth to the face because they add the volume that time has taken away...
...collagen has long been used in this way to flesh out wrinkles, but because some people react badly to bovine protein, allergy tests were needed six weeks before the procedure. CosmoDerm and CosmoPlast, approved for cosmetic use by the FDA in March, don't require testing because they come from lab-grown human cells. The treatment, which costs $575 and up, depending on how much you need, may cause a little bruising or irritation but is otherwise safe and produces results that last roughly four to six months...
...Cymetra harnesses the body's own skin-building machinery to fill its wrinkles. Some surgeons are also experimenting with Radiance, a synthetic version of the mineral that builds our bones, which doctors now use "off label" to fill particularly deep folds. Then there's Artefill, a mix of cow collagen and tiny acrylic beads that an FDA advisory committee in February recommended for approval. Once injected, the cow collagen breaks down, but the beads stimulate the skin to secrete its own collagen. The good news is that the fix lasts years; the bad news is that the beads sometimes show...
...that Botox has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, fans of cosmetic quick fixes are buzzing about the next miracle injectable. It's Restylane, a synthetic hyaluronic acid that, like collagen, can fill in facial lines and plump up lips. It's already a hit in Europe and Canada, though its maker has yet to seek approval in the U.S. But last week it completed its U.S. clinical study, and the results were impressive. Restylane outperformed a collagen-based substance by a 6-to-1 ratio. Unlike collagen, which lasts only about three months for some patients, Restylane...