Ultraviolet B exposure triggers premature senescence in human skin fibroblasts.

Abstract

Objective To develop a model of ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced premature senescence in human skin fibroblasts (HSF) so as to assess the relationship between stress-induced premature senescence and tumorigenesis. Methods The irradiation dose and frequency were optimized for the induction of prema-ture senescence. HSF were irradiated with UVB of 10 mJ/cm~2 once daily for 5 days, and unirradiated HSFs served as the control. After the last irradiation, cell proliferation was determined by MTT assay on day 3, 4, 5,6 and 7, SA β-Gal staining was performed to evaluate the senescence state of cells on day 3, and RT-PCR to detect the expressions of three senescene-associated genes, including fibronectin (FN), osteonectin (ON) and smooth muscle 22 (SM22) on day 3. Results After five exposures to UVB, HSF showed biological characteris-tics of senescence. As assessed by MTT assay, there was a loss of replicative potential in irradiated cells. The proportion of SA-β-gal-positive cells was 82.0% in UVB-stressed HSFs and 33.7% in the control cells (P < 0.01). The mRNA levels of FN, ON and SM22 were upregulated by 2.7, 2.0 and 2.3 folds respectively in irra-diated HSF compared with the control cells (all P < 0.05). Conclusion A stress-induced premature senes-cence model is established using HSF by repeated exposure to subcytotoxic UVB. Key words: Ultraviolet; Fibroblasts; Cell aging