As you humans age, your body goes through lots of changes and one of those changes is wrinkled skin. I mean you humans despise wrinkles. Humans will do a lot to not look like a big hairy raisin. Worldwide, over $60 billion are spent on anti-wrinkle skin care products. But slapping some cream on isn’t really going to solve the issue. 

The cause of wrinkles isn’t just skin-deep; it’s actually the same process that causes your arteries to stiffen as you age, which could cause some serious health problems, like heart disease or kidney damage. Yeah, believe it or not, these things are linked, and we might be able to prevent both of them. Let me dive a little deeper!

When your heart beats, artery walls expand and contract. This happens with the help of proteins, or long chain-like molecules, that form a stretchy web-like structure around the walls. This is called the extracellular matrix. I like the first one, but the second one really didn’t do it for me.

But sometimes, blood sugar molecules will break open, revealing their sticky ends. And every once in a while, these ends will stick to the proteins in the extracellular matrix and form a rigid bridge between them called a cross-link.

Didn’t think I was going to get stuck in microscopic traffic in a video talking about wrinkles? But here we are.

Eventually, as more and more sugar molecules create cross-links, the once stretchy web becomes stiff, making it difficult to expand and contract with each heartbeat. This takes away a vital cushion for the brain and the kidney against the powerful surge of the pulse, and also forces the heart to work harder, leading to illnesses like heart disease. It also makes your skin less elastic and structured, making it harder for it to snap back into its original shape, which results in wrinkles.

So, to fix that problem and the rest of problems that I mentioned, we need to somehow break apart those hard, sugary cross-links. Scientists have been looking for ways to do this and they believe that one promising avenue is a molecule called glucosepane, which is one of the products of those crosslinks I mentioned. As you age, the amount of glucosepane in your extra-cellular matrix increases. And studies have found that it causes stiffness in tissues and dysfunction in blood vessels. But this molecule is big and complex, which makes it really hard to break apart with the simple chemicals used in medicines. Instead, researchers have been looking for an enzyme which is a molecule that speeds up chemical reactions. In some exciting news, one group found some of these in bacteria that are capable of breaking apart glucosepane cross-links. While more testing is still needed, their work could pave the way for a future treatment.

Way less wrinkles and, yeah, your heart is going to work the way it should for longer! I’d say that’s a win-win! So, tell me, are you afraid of getting older? Are you worried about wrinkles or age-related diseases, or are you not really phased by aging? Let’s start a healthy discussion down in the comments!

1. despise v. to dislike and have no respect for sb./sth. 鄙视；蔑视；看不起

2. raisin n. a dried grape, used in cakes, etc. 葡萄干

3. artery n. 动脉

4. stiffen v. to become, or to make sth. become, difficult to bend or move （使）难以弯曲，难以活动，发僵

5. molecule n. the smallest unit, consisting of a group of atoms, into which a substance can be divided without a change in its chemical nature 分子

6. extracellular matrix 细胞外基质

7. microscopic adj. extremely small and difficult or impossible to see without a microscope 极小的；微小的

8. dysfunction n. 机能障碍，机能失调

9. enzyme n. 酶

10. phase v. to arrange to do sth. gradually in stages over a period of time 分阶段进行；逐步做

As you humans age, your body goes through lots of changes and one of those changes is (Q1) ________. I mean you humans despise wrinkles. Humans will do a lot to not look like a big hairy raisin. Worldwide, over $60 billion are spent on anti-wrinkle skin care products. But slapping some cream on isn’t really going to solve the issue. 

The cause of wrinkles isn’t just skin-deep; it’s actually the same process that causes your (Q2) _______ to stiffen as you age, which could cause some serious health problems, like (Q3) _______________ or kidney damage. Yeah, believe it or not, these things are linked, and we might be able to prevent both of them. Let me dive a little deeper!

When your heart beats, artery walls (Q4) ___________________. This happens with the help of proteins, or long chain-like molecules, that form a stretchy web-like structure around the walls. This is called the extracellular matrix. I like the first one, but the second one really didn’t do it for me.

But sometimes, blood sugar molecules will break open, revealing their sticky ends. And (Q5) ________, these ends will stick to the proteins in the extracellular matrix and form a rigid bridge between them called a cross-link.

Didn’t think I was going to get stuck in microscopic traffic in a video talking about wrinkles? But here we are.

Eventually, as more and more sugar molecules create cross-links, the once stretchy web becomes stiff, making it difficult to expand and contract with each heartbeat. This takes away a vital cushion for the brain and the kidney against the powerful surge of the pulse, and also forces the heart to work harder, leading to illnesses like heart disease. It also makes your skin (Q6) ______________________, making it harder for it to snap back into its original shape, which results in (Q7) _______________.

So, to fix that problem and the rest of problems that I mentioned, we need to somehow break apart those hard, sugary cross-links. Scientists have been looking for ways to do this and they believe that one promising (Q8) ____________ is a molecule called glucosepane, which is one of the products of those crosslinks I mentioned. As you age, the amount of glucosepane in your extra-cellular matrix increases. And studies have found that it causes (Q9) ____________ in tissues and dysfunction in blood vessels. But this molecule is big and complex, which makes it really hard to break apart with the simple chemicals used in medicines. Instead, researchers have been looking for an enzyme which is a molecule that speeds up chemical reactions. In some exciting news, one group found some of these in bacteria that are capable of breaking apart glucosepane cross-links. While more testing is still needed, their work could pave the way for (Q10) _________________________.

Way less wrinkles and, yeah, your heart is going to work the way it should for longer! I’d say that’s a win-win! So, tell me, are you afraid of getting older? Are you worried about wrinkles or age-related diseases, or are you not really phased by aging? Let’s start a healthy discussion down in the comments!

As you humans age, your body goes through lots of changes and one of those changes is (Q1) wrinkled skin. I mean you humans despise wrinkles. Humans will do a lot to not look like a big hairy raisin. Worldwide, over $60 billion are spent on anti-wrinkle skin care products. But slapping some cream on isn’t really going to solve the issue. 

The cause of wrinkles isn’t just skin-deep; it’s actually the same process that causes your (Q2) arteries to stiffen as you age, which could cause some serious health problems, like (Q3) heart disease or kidney damage. Yeah, believe it or not, these things are linked, and we might be able to prevent both of them. Let me dive a little deeper!

When your heart beats, artery walls (Q4) expand and contract. This happens with the help of proteins, or long chain-like molecules, that form a stretchy web-like structure around the walls. This is called the extracellular matrix. I like the first one, but the second one really didn’t do it for me.

But sometimes, blood sugar molecules will break open, revealing their sticky ends. And (Q5) every once in a while, these ends will stick to the proteins in the extracellular matrix and form a rigid bridge between them called a cross-link.

Didn’t think I was going to get stuck in microscopic traffic in a video talking about wrinkles? But here we are.

Eventually, as more and more sugar molecules create cross-links, the once stretchy web becomes stiff, making it difficult to expand and contract with each heartbeat. This takes away a vital cushion for the brain and the kidney against the powerful surge of the pulse, and also forces the heart to work harder, leading to illnesses like heart disease. It also makes your skin (Q6) less elastic and structured, making it harder for it to snap back into its original shape, which results in (Q7) wrinkles.

So, to fix that problem and the rest of problems that I mentioned, we need to somehow break apart those hard, sugary cross-links. Scientists have been looking for ways to do this and they believe that one promising (Q8) avenue is a molecule called glucosepane, which is one of the products of those crosslinks I mentioned. As you age, the amount of glucosepane in your extra-cellular matrix increases. And studies have found that it causes (Q9) stiffness in tissues and dysfunction in blood vessels. But this molecule is big and complex, which makes it really hard to break apart with the simple chemicals used in medicines. Instead, researchers have been looking for an enzyme which is a molecule that speeds up chemical reactions. In some exciting news, one group found some of these in bacteria that are capable of breaking apart glucosepane cross-links. While more testing is still needed, their work could pave the way for (Q10) a future treatment.

Way less wrinkles and, yeah, your heart is going to work the way it should for longer! I’d say that’s a win-win! So, tell me, are you afraid of getting older? Are you worried about wrinkles or age-related diseases, or are you not really phased by aging? Let’s start a healthy discussion down in the comments!