Abstract
Oxidative stress induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is the major cause of degenerative disorders including aging and disease. In this study, we investigated whether Cordyceps militaris extract (CME) has in vitro protective effects on hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress in human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). Our results showed that the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity of CME was increased in a dose-dependent manner. We found that hydrogen peroxide treatment in HDFs increased ROS generation and cell death as compared with the control. However, CME improved the survival of HDFs against hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress via inhibition of intracellular ROS production. CME treatment inhibited hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptotic cell death and apoptotic nuclear condensation in HDFs. In addition, CME prevented hydrogen peroxide-induced SA-β-gal-positive cells suggesting CME could inhibit oxidative stress-induced premature senescence. Therefore, these results suggest that CME might have protective effects against oxidative stress-induced premature senescence via scavenging ROS.
Highlights
Skin aging can be divided into intrinsic aging, which is the process of senescence that affects all body organs, and extrinsic aging, which occurs as a consequence of exposure to environmental factors such as sunlight, smoking and dryness [1,2,3]
We evaluated the preventive effects of a hot-water extract of C. militaris on hydrogen peroxide-induced apoptosis and premature senescence in human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs)
Several researchers have investigated the antioxidative activity of flavonoid compounds and have attempted to define the structural characteristics of flavonoids that contribute to their antioxidant activity [23,24]
Summary
Skin aging can be divided into intrinsic aging (chronologic aging), which is the process of senescence that affects all body organs, and extrinsic aging, which occurs as a consequence of exposure to environmental factors such as sunlight (photo-aging), smoking and dryness [1,2,3]. One of the most important extrinsic aging factors is sunlight, exposure to ultra violet irradiation, which causes skin aging by generating intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in human body [4]. Excessive generation of ROS such as hydroxyl radical (-OH), super oxide anion (O2−) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in cells causes cellular homeostasis destruction, oxidative stress and eventually, cell destruction in organs [5]. Direct exposure of oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide or ultraviolet (UV) radiation can directly induce apoptosis [10,11]
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