Non-Surgical Face Lift?

Oct. 29, 2004 -- -- What if you could make your skin look younger and erase the wrinkles without the face-freezing effect of Botox or the surgery of a facelift?

During a new procedure known as Isolagen, a small piece of skin tissue is removed from behind a patient's ear and sent to a laboratory for processing. After several weeks, millions of fibroblasts -- cells which produce collagen and elastin -- are grown. The patient's own cells are then re-injected into their wrinkles.

"The fibroblasts immediately go to work and start to remodel and rebuild the collagen. It improves the structure of the skin, it improves the elasticity and it just makes for more youthful skin," said Robert Sexauer, Vice President of Isolagen.

Actress Emma Samms, who found fame on "General Hospital" and "Dynasty," says she became a fan of Isolagen when began looking for alternatives to traditional plastic surgery.

"I've never had any kind of plastic surgery, but I had gotten to the point where I was finding myself very interested," Samms, 44, said.

Samms met with Dr. Dan Goldberg, who has offered Isolagen to patients in London for nearly two years.

Goldberg says that Isolagen works because it helps reverse what happens when the fibroblasts, which are found in all connective tissues of the skin, begin to decrease.

"Fine lines seem to be filled out and deeper lines seem to be plumped up," Goldberg said. "As far as medical risks go, it looks as though they are minimal."

After just a couple of months, Samms says she began to see a change in the wrinkles in her brow and around her mouth.

"Slowly, very gradually, they just sort of disappeared, in the most natural way you can imagine," Samms said.

Sexauer says Samms will continue to see improvements as time passes.

"With many patients, they'll begin to see an improvement in as little as 30 days. But the way our process works, is that they'll continue to see enhanced improvements over a period of 12 to 18 months," Sexauer said.