Unsaturated fatty acid-enriched extract from Hippophae rhamnoides seed reduces skin dryness through up-regulating aquaporins 3 and hyaluronan synthetases 2 expressions

Abstract

Background: Seed oil of sea buckthorn (SBT) is well known to contain high amount of polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), and PUFA is generally acknowledged to promote skin hydration by reducing trans-epidermal water loss (TEWL). Aims: The present study is aimed to investigate that skin hydration offered by SBT seed oil is whether through up-regulating AQP3 or HAS2 expression. Methods: MTT assay was performed to detect cytotoxicity of SBT seed oil, and then, PCR was carried out to explore whether SBT seed oil can increase AQP3 mRNA expression in normal human epidermis keratinocytes (NHEK) cells or not. Immunofluorescence (IF) and Western blot analysis were used to test the protein level expression of AQP3 and HAS2 influenced by SBT seed oil in NHEK cells or in reconstructed epidermis skin model. Results: According to the result of MTT assay, all test concentration of SBT seed oil showed no cytotoxicity to cells. 10 μg/mL SBT seed oil treatment evidently increased AQP3 mRNA level compared to negative control (NC). IF and Western blot analysis results demonstrated that AQP3 and HAS2 protein levels in NHEK cells treated with 10 μg/mL SBT seed oil were much higher than that of NC. Finally, treatment with 10 μg/mL SBT seed oil substantially up-regulated expression of AQP3 and HAS2 protein in reconstructed epidermis skin model in comparison to NC. Conclusions: In summary, our study first proved that SBT seed oil can improve skin hydration through increasing AQP3 and HAS2 expressions.