Abstract
Ultraviolet radiation is an environmental carcinogenic agent that enhances inflammation and immunological reactions in the exposed human skin cells leading to oxidative photoaging of the epidermal and dermal segment. In the present study, we investigated the protective role of ursolic acid (UA) against ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation- induced photoaging an in vitro model of human skin dermal fibroblasts. UA-pretreated human skin dermal fibroblast (HDF) cells were exposed to UVB radiation to evaluated cell viability, reactive oxygen species (ROS), mitochondrial membrane potential, lipid peroxidation, antioxidant status, DNA damage, proinflammatory response, apoptotic induction, and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) alteration. The UA pretreatment of HDFs mitigated the UVB irradiation-induced cytotoxicity, ROS generation, and mitochondrial membrane potential alteration and lipid peroxidation, depletion of antioxidant status, DNA damage, and apoptotic induction. UA pretreatment of HDFs also attenuated the UVB-induced expression of inflammatory (TNF-α and NF-κB) and apoptotic (p53, Bax, and caspase-3) and MMPs (MMP-2 and MMP-9) and enhanced the Bcl-2 protein levels in 20 μM UA treatment, when compared to concentrations. Hence, these results revealed that UA has the potential to mitigate UVB-induced extracellular damage by interfering with the ROS-mediated apoptotic induction and photoaging senescence and thus is a potential therapeutic agent to protect the skin against UVB-irradiation induced photooxidative damage.