Novel Combination Of Antioxidants To Restore Healthy Intercellular Communication In An In vitro Model Using...

Skin aging is a multifactorial process driven by alterations at the molecular and cellular level, also known as hallmarks of aging. One of these alterations consists of altered intercellular communication, which contributes to skin tissue dysfunction and structural damage. Here, an in vitro model to mimic these skin aging features by incubating healthy fibroblasts with conditioned medium from senescent fibroblasts is presented. First, UVB-irradiated fibroblasts can be analyzed for changes in gene expression associated with photoaging. Second, conditioned medium from UVB-induced senescent fibroblasts can be harvested and transferred to healthy fibroblasts, leading to downregulation of extracellular matrix proteins and upregulation of proinflammatory cytokine gene expression. These changes are counteracted by using a novel combination of antioxidants (vitamin C + idebenone). These results demonstrate that the in vitro model can be used to assess the efficacy of novel compounds on skin dermal cell aging features, and thus to select compounds that may modulate skin regenerative and rejuvenation cellular processes.