Wrinkles Caused By Compression? New Study Says It’s Actually the Opposite

Breakthrough study reveals aging skin behaves like a sponge under stress, reshaping our understanding of wrinkle formation

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — For decades, researchers believed wrinkles formed when skin gets compressed, like when someone pinches their face. A new study reveals that wrinkles may actually arise from the opposite force: tension. Specifically, the way aging skin contracts in one direction when stretched in another, a phenomenon called Poisson’s effect, may play a key role in wrinkle formation. This discovery could change how we understand and potentially treat aging skin.

The research, published in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, challenges long-held beliefs about wrinkle formation by examining how human skin responds to forces it regularly encounters in daily life. Rather than relying on theoretical models or compression-based testing, scientists used real human tissue and applied controlled tension to mimic natural stretching.

The key discovery centers on Poisson’s ratio, a measure of how much a material contracts in one direction when stretched in another. When you pull a rubber band, it gets longer and thinner. Scientists found that aging skin exhibits an unusually high Poisson’s ratio, meaning it contracts more dramatically sideways when stretched lengthwise.

This heightened transverse contraction increases the tissue’s susceptibility to buckling. As skin ages and loses collagen — the protein that provides structural integrity — it becomes more prone to this kind of shrinkage. When that contraction occurs in response to everyday body movements, it can cause the skin to fold and form wrinkles.

How Scientists Tested Real Human Skin

The research team from Binghamton University analyzed skin samples from seven donors ranging in age from 16 to 91 years old. Unlike earlier studies that used compression or pinch tests to create wrinkles, this experiment applied tensile forces more representative of how skin actually behaves in vivo.

Researchers cut rectangular pieces of skin and stretched them in two directions: parallel to and perpendicular to the dominant collagen fiber orientation. Each sample was held under tension for 40 minutes, using forces similar to what skin experiences during regular body movement.

Sample sizes varied from three to six pieces per donor, with all tissue collected from sun-protected areas to eliminate the confounding effects of UV damage. Scientists measured wrinkle depth, width, and tortuosity, and also tracked fluid loss during stretching to assess whether the tissue was shrinking in volume.

One striking finding involved skin volume. When materials have a Poisson’s ratio greater than 0.5 — the theoretical limit for incompressible substances — they must actually lose volume when stretched. Researchers confirmed this by measuring weight loss in the stretched skin, finding that older samples lost significantly more fluid than younger ones.

“The results show that during loading, ground substance surrounding the collagen and elastin fibers is squeezed out of the tissue to the surface of the specimen, indicating that during deformation, the volume of the tissue itself decreases,” the study explains.

Why Older Skin Wrinkles More Easily

The most pronounced differences emerged when comparing younger and older skin. While both groups stretched similarly in the direction of applied force, older skin showed significantly more contraction perpendicular to the stretch. This increased transverse contraction correlated with deeper and wider wrinkles.

Older skin samples exhibited Poisson’s ratios well above 0.5, with some values approaching theoretical extremes not typically seen in solid materials. This suggests that aging skin behaves more like a porous sponge than a uniform elastic material.

Researchers also observed that wrinkle patterns aligned with the skin’s natural collagen fiber direction. That finding helps explain why wrinkles tend to form in predictable patterns across different parts of the body. Areas where skin routinely undergoes more tension, like around the eyes and mouth, develop wrinkles that run perpendicular to that stress.

Younger skin formed more winding, tortuous wrinkles, while older skin produced straighter, more defined creases. The team speculates this may result from age-related changes in deeper skin layers, which become more uniform and less capable of producing complex wrinkle geometry.

What This Means for Anti-Aging Treatments

Many current anti-aging approaches focus on boosting moisture or stimulating collagen production. But the study’s findings suggest that how skin handles mechanical stress, and particularly its tendency to shrink sideways under tension, may also be a key factor.

The research revealed that with age, the skin’s outer layer becomes stiffer, while the underlying dermis softens. This creates an unstable layered structure prone to mechanical buckling, similar to how a stiff sheet of paper glued to a soft foam backing will wrinkle under pressure.

The researchers noted that the principles uncovered here may extend beyond skin. As they write in the paper: “We anticipate the techniques developed in this study can be extended to investigate the impact of age and disease on other anisotropic and heterogeneous biological tissues such as brain, cardiac, and osseous tissues.”

By showing that wrinkles emerge from mechanical stress, not just surface-level dryness or compression, this research opens the door to new strategies in skin care and dermatology. Treatments that improve the skin’s ability to distribute tension or minimize transverse contraction may one day become a core part of how we fight the visible signs of aging.

Disclaimer: This summary is based on a peer-reviewed study. Interpretations provided here are intended for general informational purposes and should not be taken as medical advice. Any speculation regarding skincare treatments reflects potential implications of the study and not clinically validated recommendations.

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