Dietary Suberic Acid Protects Against UVB-Induced Skin Photoaging in Hairless Mice.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a major cause of skin photoaging, which is mainly characterized by dryness and wrinkle formation. In the current study, we investigated the anti-photoaging effects of dietary suberic acid, a naturally occurring photochemical, using UVB-irradiated hairless mice. Mice were exposed to UVB three times weekly and fed diets containing three different suberic acid concentrations (0.05%, 0.1% and 0.2%) for 10 weeks. It was found that suberic acid inhibited UVB-induced skin dryness, wrinkle formation, and epidermal thickness in hairless mice. In parallel with phenotypic changes, suberic acid attenuated UVB-induced matrix metalloproteinase ( MMP ) genes ( MMP1a , MMP1b, MMP3 , and MMP9 ), while accelerating collagen genes including collagen type I alpha 1 chain ( COL1A1 ), COL1A2 , and COL3A1 and hyaluronic acid synthases genes ( HAS1 , HAS2 and HAS3 ). We further demonstrated that suberic acid upregulated the molecules involved in the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β)/SMAD pathway, but downregulated the molecules participating in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/activator protein 1 (AP-1) signaling in UVB-irritated hairless mice. Collectively, we propose that suberic acid may be a promising agent for treating skin photoaging.