Scientists appreciate that one of the most dangerous things a cell can do is to divide. That’s what happens following an ablative or wounding procedure to the skin.

I’ve previously published papers in peer-reviewed, PubMed listed journals explaining how wounds, including micro-wounding such as that caused by microneedling procedures, induces an inflammatory response in both the innate and adpative immune systems of the skin. Such wounding is especially problematic when performed repeatedly and when bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell cytokines are applied to the wound. Even with a properly performed procedure, without infection, sterile inflammation results. And as repeated wounding procedures result in chronic inflammation, oncogenic potential is increased. Cancer has been described as wounds that do not heal.

But wounding is more than inflammation. To close the wound and remodel the damaged tissue, many cells proliferate. That means they may grow in size, and importantly, replicate themselves. So when you have an ablative or wounding procedure performed on the skin, proliferation of cells will result. This happens following acid peels, laser treatments, microneedling and other procedures that wound the skin.

So what’s wrong with proliferation of cells? Let me give you a hint. Carcinomas arise from epithelial tissue and account for as many as 90 percent of all human cancers. Why so many cancer in epithelial tissue? Because epithelial cells, including some of the cells in the skin, have high rates of proliferation. When cells proliferate, replicating themselves, they must make a whole new set of DNA. During the replication of DNA, many errors are made. Mutations result. To maintain the normal processes of the genome throughout cell function and division, we have evolved a complex network of machinery known as the DNA damage response (DDR). At least 605 proteins organized in a hierarchy of 109 assemblies is involved in maintaining our DNA. It’s complicated and doesn’t work perfectly. According to the National Cancer Institute, “Each time a cell divides, it must first duplicate its genetic material in a process called DNA replication. Because defects in this process can cause mutations that eventually lead[s] to cancer.” One problem is that DNA replication errors, especially those occurring at regions that are hard to replicate, called fragile sites, can cause breaks in the DNA strands. This can increase the probability of cancer, primarily by making it more likely that fragments of chromosomes rearrange themselves, activating genetic regions in the DNA that lead to uncontrollable cell division. The more you wound the skin, the higher the probability of inducing such mutations and breaks in the DNA strands, and the higher the probability of cancer induction. The other cancer causing factor in wounds is that the cellular matrix and microenvironment in the skin are disrupted, and this has a profound influence on increasing the chances of cancer. This was taught to me many years ago by one of our professors, Dr. Mina Bissell, Ph.D., in the Dept of Molecular and Cell Biology at Berkeley.

So wounding in the skin, especially when repetitive, such has been promulgated by non-dermatologist physicians, such as John Sanderson, who lost his license to practice medicine because of incompetence, and Lance Setterfield in their blogs and books, who call for repetitive microneedling procedures for skin care, simply don’t know what they’re doing. Thanks to my pushback, of late, Mr. Setterfield (he has an undergraduate bachelor’s degree in medicine) has toned down his call for repetitive microneedling. I hope he stops promoting dangerous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell cytokines too. I’ve published a number of papers on the problems associated with the use of these cells, even under the most stringent conditions where the cells are used for transplantation at hospitals for blood diseases.

Other physicians, such as Mitchel Schwartz have now joined in to the microneedling craze for the sake of money, and are selling automated microneedle stamping machines to whomever wants one. Schwartz claims his device doesn’t create damage or inflammation because the needles don’t roll over the skin at an obtuse angle, but are stamped, perpendicularly, into the skin. Utter BS. His device is electronically stamping thousands of wounds into the face, and generating an immune reaction in the epidermis and dermis, leading to inflammation in the skin and inflammation throughout the body. Schwartz is even selling these devices to estheticians in California where the state’s laws forbid such procedures to be performed by estheticians. Damn the laws and damn the inflammation and cancer, there’s money to be made by selling microneedling to everyone. And some physicians love their side hustles.