A New Combination of Soybean and Haematococcus Extract Potently Alleviates Ultraviolet B-induced Photoaging

Abstract

Soybean has been constantly consumed in Asian countries. It contains high amounts of isoflavones. Soybean-derived isoflavones are known for many advantages such as anti-carcinogenic activity and estrogenic-like effect. In particular, soy isoflavones have been studied on their beneficial effects in improving UV-induced skin damage such as wrinkle formation and inflammation by binding with specific targets which result in regulating signal transduction. Haematococcus pluvialis (H. pluvialis, Haematococcus) is a carotenoid pigment containing the largest amount of natural astaxanthin. The astaxanthin is a non-provitamin A carotenoid, but it involves in retinoic acid receptor (RAR) or retinoid signaling which are associated with inhibiting activator protein (AP)-1 dependent transcription. Based on the previous studies, I hypothesized that soy extract (SE) and haematococcus extract (HE) can effectively improve UVB-induced photo-aging through specific signaling pathways by regulating targets. And I investigated an effect of the mixture in different ratios on UVB-induced wrinkles in hairless mice and human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs). The 1:2 ratio of SE and HE mixture (SHM) showed the most promising benefit compared to the other different ratios in vivo. Based on in vivo study I used primary HDFs for mechanisms study. SHM has an inhibitory effect on wrinkle formation through down-regulating matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 protein and mRNA expression. SHM also inhibits transactivation of AP-1 which has important role in regulating MMP expression. In addition, SHM influences UVB-induced mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) which regulate AP-1 transactivation. These result suggest that SHM could be a potential agent against UVB-induced skin wrinkles.