The Effects of UVA Irradiation on the Metabolism of Type I Collagen and Glycosaminoglycans by Human Dermal Fibroblasts in Three Dimensional Culture

Abstract

We studied the production of type I collagen and glycosaminoglycans by human dermal fibroblasts derived from young and old individuals after UVA irradiation. In these experiments, we introduced a new three-dimensional culture system supplemented with L-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate. In fibroblasts from old individuals (n=3), the amount of collagens in the cell layer was significantly decreased and matrix metallproteinase-1 (MMP-1) activity in the supernatant was significantly elevated after UVA irradiation, while the amounts of glycosaminoglycans in the cell layer and stromelysin-1 (MMP-3) activity showed no significant changes. In contrast, there were no significant changes after UVA irradiation of fibroblasts from young individuals (n=3). These results suggest that the donor age of dermal fibroblasts may be crucial to investigating the metabolism of type I collagen after UVA irradiation.