Role of microRNAs in human skin aging unraveled

Cellular senescence can be induced by a variety of extrinsic stimuli, and sustained exposure to sunlight is a key factor in photoaging of the skin. Accordingly, irradiation of skin fibroblasts by UVB light triggers cellular senescence, which is thought to contribute to extrinsic skin aging, although molecular mechanisms are incompletely understood. IBA researchers have identified five microRNAs that are differentially regulated in UVB-induced senescence of human skin fibroblasts. Using genome-wide transcriptome analysis, a transcriptional signature of UVB-induced senescence was identified, and bioinformatics tools were applied to identify microRNA-mRNA functional interactions that direct the process of UVB-induced senescence. These findings provide new insight into mechanisms of photoaging in the skin and will serve as a rich data mining resource for follow-up projects with the aim to identify new strategies for intervention in human skin aging.