Age shows nowhere better than on the skin. The ravages of time on skin and the epidermal stem cells that differentiate to replenish its outer layer have been hypothesized, but there has been no method to evaluate their aging at the molecular level. Now, researchers at the University of Tsukuba and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) have revealed that changes in the complex sugars called glycans that coat the surface of epidermal stem cells can serve as a potential biological marker of aging.
