Protective effect of protein transduction domain-fusion alpha B crystallin on the cellular aging of human dermal fibroblast cells

Abstract

In the skin aging process, wrinkle is generally formed by genetic and environmental elements. Active oxygen is known to occur in photoaging, typical case of externally caused aging, not to mention in internally caused aging. Active oxygen is known to reduce and transform collagen of dermis, and collagen synthesis, and express enzymes which break down substrate protein. Recently, there have been researches demonstrating that heat shock proteins have various effects on photoaging process. Alpha B crystallin, smaller type of heat shock proteins, is known to regulate lens epithelial cell death of man exposed to UVA, it is not known what effect it has on skin fibroblasts. This study, using protein transduction domain (PTD) which can transport proteins whose molecular weight is big into the cell efficiently in a short time, transported alpha B crystallin protein into human skin fibroblasts, and observed biological performance with hydrogen peroxide treatment. The observation revealed that, in the cell where PTD-alpha B crystallin is transported, expression of MMP-1 known as collagenase, MMP-2 known as gelatinase, and MMP-9 was inhibited, and collagen increased, and MEK-ERK signal channel for enzyme that break up collagen, were blocked. In conclusion, this study showed that alpha B crystallin protein will be used as emollient for skin aging through protein transduction technology.