致皮肤老化的罪魁祸首

 Don't blame genes¹ for aging facial skin. A new study of twins suggests you can blame those coarse wrinkles, brown or pink spots, and dilated² blood vessels³ on too much time in the sun, smoking, and being overweight.

Because twins share genes, but may have different exposures to environmental factors, studying twins allows an, "opportunity to control for genetic⁴ susceptibility," Dr. Elma D. Baron⁵, at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, and colleagues explain in the latest issue of Archives of Dermatology.

Their analysis of environmental skin-damaging factors in 65 pairs of twins hints that skin aging is related more to environment and lifestyle than genetic factors.

But when it comes to skin cancer, the researchers say their findings support previous reports that both environment and genes affect skin cancer risk.

Baron's team examined facial skin of 130 twins, 18 to 77 years old, who lived mostly in the northern Midwest and Eastern regions of the U.S. who were attending the Twins Days Festival in Ohio in August 2002.

At this time, each of the twins also separately reported how their skin burned or tanned without sunscreen, their weight, and their history of skin cancer, smoking, and alcohol drinking.

The study group consisted of 52 fraternal and 10 identical twin pairs, plus 3 pairs who were unsure of their twin status. Identical twins share all of their genes and fraternal twins share only about half.

From these data, the researchers noted⁶ strong ties, outside of twin status, between smoking, older age, and being overweight, and having facial skin with evidence of environmental damage.

By contrast, sunscreen use and drinking alcohol appeared correlated with lesser⁷ skin damage.

Baron and colleagues say the current findings, which highlight ties between facial aging and potentially avoidable environmental factors -- such as smoking, being overweight, and unprotected overexposure to the sun's damaging rays -- may help motivate people to minimize these risky⁸ behaviors.

皮肤老化？别怪基因。一项针对双胞胎开展的最新研究表明，皱纹、红褐斑以及血管瘤等皮肤问题和长时间日晒、吸烟以及体重超标有关。

位于美国俄亥俄州克里夫兰的凯斯西储医学院的艾尔玛?D?巴伦博士及其同事在最新一期的《皮肤病学档案》中解释称，由于双胞胎拥有相同的基因，但可能受到的环境因素的影响不同，因此研究双胞胎可以“对基因易感性加以控制”。

研究人员对65对双胞胎的皮肤损伤环境影响因素进行分析后发现，环境和生活方式对皮肤老化的影响大于遗传因素。

但在皮肤癌的问题上，研究人员称他们的发现与之前的研究一样，认为环境和基因对患皮肤癌风险均有影响。

巴伦的研究小组对130个年龄从18岁到77岁的双胞胎的面部皮肤进行了研究。这些双胞胎大部分居住在美国中西部偏北地区和东部地区，他们于2002年8月参加了在俄亥俄州举行的“双胞胎节”。

在这项研究中，每对双胞胎也分别报告了他们的皮肤在没有涂防晒霜的情况下晒伤或晒黑的情况、他们的体重、患皮肤癌、吸烟以及喝酒的历史。

这些双胞胎中包括52对异卵双胞胎和10对同卵双胞胎，以及三对不确定自己属于哪种类型的双胞胎。同卵双胞胎的基因完全相同，而异卵双胞胎只有大约一半的基因相同。

研究人员通过分析这些数据发现，不论哪种类型的双胞胎，受到环境伤害的面部皮肤与吸烟、年龄增长、体重超标有很大关系。

相比之下，使用防晒霜以及喝酒的人皮肤损伤较小。

巴伦及其同事称，目前的这项发现强调了皮肤老化和可避免的环境因素之间的关系，如抽烟、体重超标、无防护措施地过度日晒等，该研究可以促使人们尽量避免这些伤害皮肤的风险行为。

1 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

2 dilated   

adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her eyes dilated with fear. 她吓得瞪大了眼睛。
• The cat dilated its eyes. 猫瞪大了双眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 vessels   

n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人

参考例句：

• The river is navigable by vessels of up to 90 tons. 90 吨以下的船只可以从这条河通过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• All modern vessels of any size are fitted with radar installations. 所有现代化船只都有雷达装置。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

5 baron   

n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王

参考例句：

• Henry Ford was an automobile baron.亨利·福特是一位汽车业巨头。
• The baron lived in a strong castle.男爵住在一座坚固的城堡中。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

8 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。