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Fibroblasts in the papillary dermis appear and behave differently from fibroblasts in the reticular dermis. Papillary fibroblasts appear lean and spindle-shaped in culture, whereas reticular fibroblasts appear more square and stretched and also express more α-smooth muscle actin. We can also distinguish differences in proliferation, matrix production, response to growth factors, and production of growth factors. It has been proposed that skin aging is caused by the loss of papillary fibroblasts, which affects skin elasticity, matrix production and degradation, epidermal interaction, and basement membrane homeostasis. These authors performed gene expression analysis on cultured fibroblasts isolated from the papillary and reticular dermis to …