UV- or oxidized lipid treated dermal skin fibroblasts

Long wavelength Ultraviolet (UVA-1) radiation causes oxidative stress that leads to the formation of noxious substances within the skin. As a defensive mechanism skin cells produce detoxifying enzymes and antioxidants when they detect modified molecules. We have recently shown that UVA-1 irradiation oxidizes the abundant membrane phospholipid 1-palmitoyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphorylcholine (PAPC), which then induced the synthesis of the stress response protein heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) in dermal fibroblasts. Here we examined the effects of UVA-1 and (UV-) oxidized phospholipids on the global gene expression in human dermal fibroblasts. We identified a cluster of genes that were co-induced by UVA-1-oxidized PAPC and UVA-1 radiation. The cluster included HO-1, glutamate-cysteine ligase modifier subunit (GCLM), aldo-keto reductases-1-C1 and -C2 (AKR1C1, AKR1C2), and interleukin 8 (IL8). These genes are members of the cellular stress response system termed “antioxidant response” or “Phase II detoxification”. Accordingly, the regulatory regions of all these genes contain binding sites for NF-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a major regulator of the antioxidant response. Both UVA-1 irradiation and treatment with oxidized lipids led to increased nuclear accumulation of Nrf2. Silencing expression of Nrf2 using siRNA or using cells and tissue from Nrf2-deficient mice, we show that the induction of the co-regulated genes was suppressed. Expression of other canonical UVA-1-induced genes, including cyclooxygenase 2 (Cox2) and interleukin 6 (IL6) was unaltered in the absence of Nrf2. Together, our data show that UVA-1-mediated lipid oxidation induces induction of antioxidant response genes, which is dependent on the redox-regulated transcription factor Nrf2. To activate Nrf2 is a major strategy for novel antioxidant drugs, the skin photo-adaptation (SPA) inducers. Our finding that specific uv-oxidized lipids act similar sheds a new (ultraviolet) light on the usually detrimental “image” of UV generated lipid mediators. we profiled global mRNA expression levels in human dermal fibroblasts that had been treated with either UVA-1 or oxidized lipids. To investigate the effect of oxidized phospholipids on gene regulation, we used two preparations, which differed in their degree of oxidation; the minimally oxidized UV-PAPC resulting from UVA-1 irradiation of PAPC, and air-oxidized PAPC (OxPAPC), which represents the full spectrum of oxidation products (Gruber 07) (Reis et al., 2005). We irradiated dermal fibroblasts with UVA-1 (40J/cm²) or treated them with UV-PAPC, OxPAPC or native PAPC (100µg/ml each). We analyzed global gene expression four hours after stimulation with gene arrays (Affymetrix U133A Plus 2.0 Gene Chips).