Why our skin loses fat and immunity during aging

A team of researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified how dermal fibroblasts develop into fat cells and why they stop doing so as people age. Dermal fibroblasts are cells within our skin that generate connective tissue necessary for injury recovery, and produce fats that give us a youthful appearance while fighting off infections. "We have discovered how the skin loses the ability to form fat during aging," said the study’s senior author, Richard Gallo, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor and …