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Human Growth Factor (HGF) is a complex family of hormones
that are produced by the body to control cell growth and
cell division in skin, blood, bone, and nerve tissue.
They regulate the division and reproduction of cells.
They can also influence the growth rate of some cancers.
HGFs occur naturally in the body but they are also synthesized
and used in medicine for wound healing and immune system
stimulation.
There's a body of research that touts HGFs as the answer
for wrinkles. Based on scientific protocol, you can create
"living" skin cells in a petri dish. At first
skin cells grow and divide rapidly, and then the division
rate slows as we age. Finally the cells cease replicating.
In vitro, you can recreate the skin cell's life process
and accelerate the effect, so you can watch the growth
process of cells in a short period of time. The research
shows that when you add some forms of HGFs, the skin cells
live longer than they would on their own. While that sounds
like your skin would stay young forever, the flip side
is that if you add too much HGF, the skin cells die off
sooner than they would if you hadn't added any!
The research into HGFs is without question intriguing
but there is so much that's not known, especially in terms
of long-term risk or stability. If cosmetics companies
continue to use HGFs, it's the consumer who will be the
guinea pig.
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