Wrinkles are pleats or folds in the skin. In aging skin, they occur because of the diminished elasticity and generalized loss of dermal thickness that accompanies aging.

Even though the skin wrinkles as a sign of aging, age alone is not the sole cause. Some lines are produced by repeated natural movements. If that's hard to believe then just take a second to think about how often you laugh, frown or squint in a day. These reiterated movements create thin lines that appear around the corners of the eyes, mouth and forehead and can be easily linked to loss of elasticity.

Other marks that appear on a "lived-in face" are a result of overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays, both UVA and UVB rays. UVA rays cause tanning, wrinkling, and melanoma while UV light may harm skin by elevating the synthesis of proteolytic enzymes that degrade collagen, the connective tissues located beneath the skin.

There are 3 types of wrinkles:

Crinkles are the very fine wrinkles that happen in aging skin and appear everywhere, not just in places that have been exposed to solar rays. Elastic fibers in your skin start to deteriorate around the age of 30, but you might not notice it until sometime later. This type of wrinkling happens even without sun exposure, however it be heightened by it.

Glyphic wrinkles are wrinkles that we all naturally have, but which have become exacerbated with aging. If you have taken to using turtlenecks or scarves to hide lines that have appeared on your neck, you know what a glyphic wrinkle is. These wrinkles tend to become more marked with muscle movement or with facial expressions.

Furrows are deep wrinkles that start to form on the faces of aging people. These lines are mainly straight lines that appear on the forehead, corners of the mouth and eyes. They are so common that they've been baptized crow's feet or laugh lines. Repeated movement and sun exposure accentuates their development. It is hard to get rid of these types of wrinkles when they appear between muscle groups. Furrows that surface around mouth and eyes remain visibly evident even when you aren't smiling or squinting. They may not be eradicated, but may be minimized in size.

If we were to create a special type of wrinkle filler or view aging as a disease, then wrinkles could be viewed as small, improperly healed wounds. Undoubtedly wrinkles are characterized by flawed buildup of collagen and imperfect skin cell layering, which is also seen in healed wounds, albeit on a much larger scale. If so, could the agentsthat modify the process of wound healing (by minimizing scar formation and improving skin remodeling) have a potential to avoid or even reduce wrinkles? Well, maybe. A good example of a wound-healing element that appears to also have anti-wrinkle potential is the class of compounds named copper peptides, small proteins that reduce scar formation.