Stretch Marks

What are Stretch Marks?

Striae Rubrae and Striae Albae are two different entities.

Stretch marks are a form of scarring of the skin usually with a white or pink colour and striated appearance. They are caused by a tearing in the dermis. Both men and women can suffer from stretch marks.

Besides a genetic predisposition in some individuals, stretch marks usually occur when there is rapid tightening of the skin, such as during pregnancy or other rapid weight changes.

The occurrence of stretch marks is also influenced by hormonal changes during puberty, pregnancy or hormone replacement therapy. During pregnancy, stretch marks appear usually on the belly, but also commonly occur on the breasts, thighs, hips, lower back and buttocks.

They appear first as pink, reddish or purplish lines, gradually fading to a lighter range. Obviously, pink and white stretch marks are different entities and must be treated in a different manner.

Whilst in prevention and management of pink stretch marks, an hydrating, soothing and smoothing cream must be used, in the management of white stretch marks priority must be given to the reconstruction of collagen fibres, heavily damaged at this stage.

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Pink Stretch Marks
Striae Rubrae (SR)

The two major characteristics of striae rubrae are inflammation and fibrosis.

First, SOD displays strong anti-inflammatory properties. SOD overexpression was shown to significantly reduce TNFɑ, IL1a, IL6, MIP2, and MCP-1 cytokine and VCAM, ICAM, P-selectin, and E-selectin adhesion molecule expressions in injured tissues.

SOD is an inhibitory agent of neutrophil-mediated inflammation. It’s topical use in dermatological inflammatory diseases was widely reported.

In early striae rubrae, fibroblasts acquire a more contractile phenotype, corresponding to that of myofibroblasts. Hence, we are in a pre-fibrotic or even fibrotic state.

SOD also displays strong anti-fibrotic properties.
SOD has antifibrotic properties, as it was proposed as a potent antagonist of a major fibrogenic growth factor: TGF-ß.

The reversion of myofibroblasts into normal fibroblasts by SOD was also demonstrated in vitro.

White Stretch Marks
Striae Albae (SA)

In SA, the key role is plaid by fibroblasts.

There exists a fundamental aberration of fibroblast metabolism in striae albae.

Expression of collagens, elastin and fibronectin genes are apparently decreased, and that there is a marked alteration of fibroblast metabolism in SA.

Hence the problem raised is acting on the fibroblasts in order to make them produce normal collagen.

For this purpose, we have selected a specific peptide, Palmitoyl Tripeptide-5, a small synthetic peptide mimicking natural protein activity in skin to unlock TGF-β potential.

TGF-β is known to stimulate the fibroblasts in the dermis to synthesize several proteins such as collagen, but also fibulin-5.

TGF-β also inhibits the expression of protein-degrading matrix metalloproteases (MMP) such as MMP-1, -2, -3 and -13.

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