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Hyaluronic acid filler injections demonstrate long-term clinical improvement

Hyaluronic acid filler injections performed on women aged 40 to 50 years demonstrated clinical improvement and development of significantly more collagen fibers at 3 months and 9 months after the procedure, according to recent research.

“In this study, the clinical and histological study of [hyaluronic acid] filler injections on photo-aged faces revealed clinical improvement and skin remodeling after the procedure, with a long follow-up period,” Fabiana Braga França Wanick, MD, MSc, from the department of medical sciences at Fluminense Federal University in Niterói, Brazil, and colleagues wrote.

Wanick and colleagues performed hyaluronic acid injections on 20 women aged 40 to 50 years, where the injections were focused on the preauricular areas and nasolabial folds. The researchers performed skin biopsies prior to the procedure and at 3-month and 9-month follow-up, according to the abstract.

They found a demonstrated clinical improvement for 12 months in 16 patients, with a morphologic evaluation showing an increase of the epidermal layers. At 3 months, there was an increase of collagen fibers by 34.2% ± 31.5% and an increase of 39.5% ± 39.7% at 9 months (P < 0.05), according to the morphologic study.

“The mechanism of action related to dermal remodeling after [hyaluronic acid] gel injection in photodamaged dermis can be better explained by immunohistochemistry studies of the extracellular matrix components, and the results of such research will be published soon,” Wanick and colleagues wrote. – by Jeff Craven

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