Inflammaging

Inflammaging is a term borrowed from ageing research for persistent, low-level inflammation running without an infection or an injury to explain it, rising slowly across decades. In skin it is associated with senescent cells that have stopped dividing but keep secreting signalling molecules, with accumulated ultraviolet exposure, and with a barrier that leaks more than it used to.

The proposed loop feeds itself. Inflammatory signals switch on matrix metalloproteinases, which break collagen and elastin down faster than fibroblasts replace them; the damage that follows generates more signalling; a weakened barrier lets more irritants through, adding more again.

It is worth being precise about what this is. Inflammaging is a way of organising observations, not a condition a clinic can measure and not something any cosmetic is approved to treat. Marketing has adopted the word enthusiastically, and an extract that lowers an inflammatory marker in cultured cells has not thereby been shown to slow ageing in a person.

The interventions with real outcome data behind them are unglamorous and predate the term: daily sun protection, not smoking, and retinoids. Where a soothing ingredient helps, it helps by reducing irritation you can actually feel — a reasonable goal in itself, and a far smaller claim than the word invites. Persistent redness or inflammation is a reason to see a clinician, not to buy another serum.