双语 | word天！伦敦国王学院最新研究：长痘的人老得慢！

【编者按】生活中，很多人都深受痘痘的折磨，对男生而言，是形象的贬值，是魅力的减分；对女生来说，是信心的丧失，爱情的暗淡。但战“痘”了那么多年的你可知道，痘痘或许能让你“青春永驻”？伦敦国王学院最新研究给广大深受痘肌困扰的小伙伴带来了福音——长痘竟然能让你老得慢！

It might be cold comfort for those of you struggling with bad skin right now, but a new study has found that people with acne tend to have younger-looking skin as they grow older.

对于正在与糟糕皮肤作斗争的人来说，这个消息也许是个安慰：一项新研究发现长痘的人在变得更老之后，他们的皮肤会看起来更年轻。

Comparing genetic information from women with and without acne, the study found that acne-prone women had significantly longer telomeres (or chromosome caps) than their clear-skinned counterparts, which means their cells were better protected from the deterioration that usually comes with age.

该研究比较了长痘和没长痘女性的遗传信息之后，发现长痘的女性端粒更长，这意味着她们的细胞受到的保护更好。

"For many years, dermatologists have identified that the skin of acne sufferers appears to age more slowly than in those who have not experienced any acne in their lifetime. Whilst this has been observed in clinical settings, the cause of this was previously unclear," said lead researcher Simone Ribero, a dermatologist at King's College London. "Our findings suggest that the cause could be linked to the length of telomeres which appears to be different in acne sufferers and means their cells may be protected against ageing."

伦敦大学国王学院的皮肤病医生Simone Ribero是研究的主要作者，他表示：“多年来，皮肤病医生们发现长痘的病人比那些没有长痘的病人老得更慢。我们的发现表明这可能与端粒长度有关，长痘病人的细胞受到的保护更好。”

Telomeres are DNA-protecting structures at the ends of our chromosomes. Think of them like those little plastic caps that sit on the ends of your shoelaces to keep them from fraying.

端粒是保护DNA的结构，它位于我们的染色体末端。它们就像鞋带的塑料盖，能够让它们不受到磨损。

Each time a cell divides, its telomeres get shorter, to the point where the cell can't replicate anymore.

每次细胞分裂的时候，它的端粒都会变得更短，等它短到一定程度的时候细胞就再也不能复制了。

A cell that can’t replicate anymore either dies or becomes senescent, which means it can no longer grow or function properly. This telomere shortening process has been associated with ageing, cancer, and a higher risk of death.

一个不能复制的细胞要么死亡要么衰老，这意味着它再也不能生长或者起到恰当的作用。端粒变短的过程与老化、癌症和高死亡风险有关。

Those who produce higher levels of an enzyme called telomerase will experience slower cell death and senescence, because it helps rebuild the length of telomeres after cell division. That means they’ll show less outwardly visible signs of progressive cell death, such as wrinkles and thinning skin.

那些产生较高浓度端粒酶的人，其细胞死亡和衰老会变慢，因为它能够在细胞分裂之后帮助重建端粒长度。这意味着它们表现出来的细胞死亡会更少，比如长皱纹和皮肤变薄。

It’s been shown that things like smoking and obesity can rapidly accelerate the telomere shortening process, which is why smokers or those who are heavily overweight tend to look older than they actually are.

人们已经知道吸烟和肥胖会加速端粒变短的过程，也因此吸烟者和超重者看起来会比他们实际年龄更老。

But what about people who look younger than they actually are?

但那些看起来比实际年龄年轻的人呢？

As the UK National Health Services explains, for years, dermatologists have been noticing that people who have had acne show signs of ageing later than those who have never had the skin condition.

正如英国国家健康服务解释的那样，多年来皮肤病医生们都注意到长痘之人随后展现出老化迹象的时间比那些从未长过痘的人晚。

To figure out why this is, Ribero and her team measured the length of white blood cell telomeres in 1,205 twins - all female. A quarter of the twins reported having experienced acne in their lifetime.

为了了解其中的原因，Ribero及其团队测量了1205对双胞胎的白细胞端粒长度，这些双胞胎都是女性。其中四分之一的双胞胎长过痘。

They did the same in a separate study, where they age-matched 195 sets of twins without acne to 39 sets of twins with acne.

在另外一个独立的实验中他们做了同样的事情，那些年龄一致的双胞胎中有195对没有长痘，而39对长过痘。

The team found that, on average, women who'd experienced acne before had noticeably longer telomeres (mean 7.17 kilobases) than women who’d never had acne (mean 6.92 kb) - after factors such as age, weight, and height were taken into account.

该团队发现平均而言，撇开年龄、体重和身高等因素之后，那些之前长过痘的女性端粒明显比没有长痘的女性更长。

They ended up only finding one gene pathway that was more commonly expressed in women without acne than women who'd had acne: ZNF420, which happens to be a pathway that regulates programmed cell death.

他们还检查了双胞胎皮肤切片的基因表达，发现那些没有长过痘的女性比长过痘的女性ZNF420基因的表达更多，而这正好是一个负责调解细胞程序性死亡的基因。

There are a couple of limitations here, the biggest being that the researchers have only been able to establish a link between shorter telomere length, people with acne, and slower ageing, but have yet to show any biological cause to explain why people prone to acne might be more likely to experience slower telomere shortening.

当然此研究也有一些限制，最大的限制在于研究人员们仅给更短的端粒长度、长痘之人和更慢的老化联系起来，却无法解释为何长过痘的人端粒变短的过程会更慢。

It could be that the ZNF420 pathway is less active in people with acne - and therefore the process of cell death is slowed down - but this has yet to be proven. The study also replied on self-reporting with regards to the severity of acne, and only focussed on women, so we have to take those factors into account too.

有可能是长痘之人的ZNF420通道不那么活跃，因此细胞死亡的过程被减慢了，但这依旧有待证实。该研究也仅依靠实验对象报告自己是否长过痘并且只研究了女性，因此我们也需要考虑这些因素。

But for those having a tough time with their skin right now, it's nice to know that you might end up having the last laugh.

在战痘了这么久之后，得知自己也许是笑到最后的人，是件不错的事情。

The results have been published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

这些结果已被发表在《皮肤病学研究杂志》上。

英文来源：Science Alert

中文来源：煎蛋

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