Photoprotective and anti-skin aging effects of eicosapentaenoic acid in human skin in vivo

Hyeon Ho Kim, Soyun Cho, Serah Lee, Kyu Han Kim, Kwang Hyun Cho, Hee Chul Eun, and Jin Ho Chung

Dermatology Dept., Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744

Corresponding Author: falco72{at}hanmail.net

Skin aging can be attributed to photoaging (extrinsic aging) and intrinsic (chronological) aging. Photoaging and intrinsic aging are induced by damage to human skin to repeated exposure to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and damage due to the passage of time, respectively. In our previous report, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) was found to inhibit UV-induced MMP-1 expression in human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). Therefore, we herein investigated the effects of EPA on UV-induced skin damage and intrinsic aging, by applying EPA topically to young and aged human skin, respectively. By immunohistochemical analysis and Western blotting, we found that the topical application of EPA reduced UV-induced epidermal thickening and inhibited collagen decrease induced by UV. It was also found that EPA attenuated UV-induced MMP-1 and MMP-9 expressions by inhibiting UV-induced c-Jun phosphorylation, which is closely related to UV-induced AP-1 activation, and by inhibiting JNK and p38 activation. EPA also inhibited UV-induced cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 without altering COX-1 expression. Moreover, it was found that EPA increased collagen and elastic fibers (tropoelastin and fibrillin-1) expression by increasing TGF-b expression in aged human skin. Taken together, this study demonstrates that topical EPA has potential as an anti-skin aging agent.

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