Human stem cells in facial product?

Here’s a fun fact about human stem cell facial creams! Human stem cells are known for their anti-aging & rejuvenating properties. However, in facial creams, only the conditioned medium (“the liquid”) are used and not the actual stem cells. ⠀
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The use of actual human stem cells would require FDA approval and interestingly, stem cell-conditioned medium has not been classified and hence do not require FDA approval. So, the safety and effectiveness of these products are actually not known.⠀
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Recently, two papers were published (references below) on the effectiveness of specific mesenchymal stem cell-conditioned medium for skincare and they do seem promising! Hopefully, more studies and regulations will be done so that the safety and effectiveness of the products are not just ‘marketing messages’.

References

FDA “FDA Authority Over Cosmetics: How Cosmetics Are Not FDA-Approved, but Are FDA-Regulated”

Byrdie “Human Skin Cells: The Next Anti-Aging Frontier?”

Leapsmag “The Real Science Behind “Anti-Aging” Beauty Products”

“A study on clinical effectiveness of cosmetics containing human stem cell conditioned media”

“Conditioned media from human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells stimulate rejuvenation function in human skin”

“Cell-Free Therapeutics” from Components Secreted by Mesenchymal Stromal Cells as a Novel Class of Biopharmaceuticals”