One may think that increasing collagen production from within would be a promising approach for avoiding stretch marks. It would fortify the skin matrix and skin with improved strength which is the contrary of atrophic skin susceptible to tearing when over-stretched.

Artificial or Man Made Concotions to Fight Stretch Marks and their Effectiveness.

Palmitoyl pentapeptide -the basis of StriVectin-SD, a product that with energetic marketing as a youth-restoring choice to Botox has become a big seller in the past years- seems to be the prominent ingredient of this new approach by the cosmetic industry in its search to profit from consumer's burning desires to have flawless skin.

Chemically speaking, palmitoyl pentapeptide-3 contains five amino acids linked together and attached to a fatty acid to magnify oil solubility for the sake of better skin penetration. It is biologically related to the precursor of collagen type I (a.k.a. procollagen type I). Researchers found that when added to the culture of fibroblasts (the key skin cells), palmitoyl pentapeptide-3 activated the synthesis of the key factors of the skin matrix: collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans. How exactly palmitoyl pentapeptide-3 did that remains unclear although a number of hypothesis exist.

Unfortunately, the ability to enhance the productivity of skin cells in the test tube does not always turn into an effective skin treatment. Hardly any promising test tube discoveries ever become an established therapy. Clinical studies of palmitoyl pentapeptide-3 do exist but all of them (to our knowledge) have been organized or sponsored by manufacturers (Sedema and Proctor & Gamble).

This does not automatically make the studies partial, but potential conflict of interests is frequently a red flag. Unfortunately, this situation is usual. Early studies of patented chemicals are almost always sponsored by manufacturers. It generally takes a long time before completely independent research is executed.

So far testing has been concluded on only a few patients and thus the clinical data is still too insufficient to review palmitoyl pentapeptide-3 as a proven stretch-mark treatment or preventative model at this time. The molecule is a fabricated man made chemical synthesized in a laboratory. It is reported to be safe but it has not gone through the extensive clinical trials required for it to be accepted as a drug.

The makers don't seem to be seeking such authorization as they desire to market stretch mark treatments as cosmetic products -designed to change the look of skin and not its structure- which are not held to the same approval standards by the FDA as drugs are.

Indeed, they do not pretend to be all that interested in the results of the pentapeptide chemical for stretch marks since they are using it as the basis of a good story on how it happens to also be good for wrinkles, which is a much larger market. They employ high-tech claims to induce customers by highlighting the "science" and "technologies" behind their product.

Since the cosmetic market is ultimately left to monitor itself and the Food & Drug Administration gets involved only when products have unfavorable reactions or alter the structure of the body. The companies choose to say they adjust the look of stretch marks or wrinkles instead of saying they diminish them which is a structural change. You and me continue to be hoodwinked by the cosmetics industry's ingenious marketing and are left to our own devices to monitor such claims.

Although the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) monitors advertising for unfair or deceptive claims, it isn't too aggressive on the cosmetics industry. "Our priority is to ensure that if a product is claiming a health benefit that there are enough trials to back that. If there are general appearance-enhancement claims, those are not high in our prosecution list," says Heather Hippsley, assistant director for the FTC's advertising-practices division in an interview published in Newsweek in November 2004.

Risks of Man Made Synthetic Chemicals

The problem with man made chemicals or isolates is not only that they may or may not be effective and require extensive and expensive clinical tests but also that they run the possibility of having harmful effects in the long run. We have seen many products rushed to market on the back of deficient studies and later withdrawn after years of use that may have changed some people's lives negatively. We do not live in a perfect world and what scientists may consider as safe chemicals one day could well be banned the next day on the findings of new research.

Now, again: EVEN IF THE CHEMICALS ARE PROVEN TO BE SAFE, boosting collagen formation may not be sufficient to impede stretch marks from forming. It is also necessary to degrade the existing damaged and worn out cells. And not only to get rid of them and their ugly marks on our body, but to also liberate their amino acids and make them available as building blocks that our system needs to create new collagen, elastin, and skin matrix cells.