Vitamin C promotes epidermal proliferation by enhancing the DNA demethylation of proliferation-related genes in human epidermal equivalents (Microarray)

The stratified structure of the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin, is highly regulated through the differentiation of keratinocytes. Vitamin C act as a cofactor for DNA demethylation enzyme ten-eleven translocation (TET) in epigenetic mechanism. Previous study revealed that VC deficiency causes epidermal atrophy in hairless mice unable to synthesize VC. We used microarrays to examine in detail the differences in gene expression in keratinocytes with and without VC addition. Total RNA was extracted from a half portion of human epidermal equivalents treated with or without 1.0 mM VC for 14 days using an miRNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen, Inc.) according to the manufacturer’s instructions.