Transcriptomic profiling of UVB-induced photoaging and extracellular vesicle rejuvenation in HFF-1 human fibroblasts

Human skin aging involves complex changes in dermal fibroblasts driven by chronic ultraviolet B (UVB) exposure. UVB irradiation causes oxidative stress and DNA damage in fibroblasts, disrupting collagen and elastin matrix and leading to wrinkles, elasticity loss, and other signs of photoaging. In vitro, UVB upregulates matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and inflammatory signals in dermal cells, driving extracellular matrix breakdown. Conversely, extracellular vesicles (EVs) from stem cells have shown protective and regenerative effects on photoaged skin. For example, stem cell-derived EV treatment can suppress UVB-induced MMP overexpression, enhance collagen synthesis, and improve fibroblast migration in UV-damaged cultures.In this project we performed bulk RNA sequencing on nine samples of HFF-1 human dermal fibroblasts under three conditions (three replicates each): untreated control, UVB-irradiated (photoaging model), and UVB plus treatment with human embryonic stem cell-derived EVs (rejuvenation model). We use these data to profile transcriptome-wide changes caused by UVB and to assess how EV treatment alters gene expression relative to both control and photoaged cells.Importantly, the dataset will be used to validate SkinAGE, a deep learning based skin aging clock previously developed to predict biological age from gene expression. By applying the SkinAGE model to our samples, we can test whether EV treatment rejuvenates the fibroblast transcriptome toward a younger profile. This dataset will aid investigation of skin photoaging mechanisms and of novel anti-aging interventions.