NEW YORK (Reuters Health) — A chemical used in cosmetic products promising an “instant face lift” makes wrinkles disappear by damaging skin cells, Canadian researchers report.“From our point of view the cells are altered. They stop dividing, they stop secreting, and after...24 hours a certain proportion of them die,” Dr. Francois Marceau of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Quebec told Reuters Health.

Marceau, a cell biologist, said he is reluctant to recommend that these products not be used. However, the findings make it clear that more research is needed on how these and similar products work. “I don’t want to scare people,” he added. “The risk is not probably very big, but in my opinion it hasn’t been measured accurately.”

Marceau and his team tested 2-dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE) in cultured rabbit and human skin cells. As the researchers predicted, applying the product caused a massive and rapid swelling of the cells.