Seawater pearl hydrolysate inhibits photoaging via decreasing oxidative stress, autophagy and apoptosis of Ultraviolet B‐induced human skin keratinocytes

Abstract Background Ultraviolet (UV) is the main reason to cause photoaging skin which not only hinders beauty, brings the patients with psychological burden, but also pathologically leads to the occurrence of tumors in skin. Objective This study goes into the inhibitory effect and mechanism of seawater pearl hydrolysate (SPH) to address human skin keratinocytes photoaging induced by UVB. Methods The photoaging model of Hacat cell was constructed by UVB irradiation, the levels of oxidative stress, apoptosis, aging, autophagy and autophagy‐related protein and signal pathway expression were assessed to characterize the inhibitory effect and mechanism of SPH on photoaging Hacat cell. Results Seawater pearl hydrolysate significantly accelerated (p < 0.05) the activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase, and markedly reduced (p < 0.05) the contents of reactive oxygen species (ROS), malondialdehyde, protein carbonyl compound and nitrosylated tyrosine protein, aging level, apoptosis rate in Hacat cell induced by 200 mJ cm−2 UVB after 24 and 48 h of culture; high dose SPH significantly raised (p < 0.05) relative expression level of p‐Akt, p‐mTOR proteins, and markedly decreased (p < 0.05) relative expression level of LC3II protein, p‐AMPK, and autophagy level in Hacat cell induced by 200 mJ cm−2 UVB, or in combination with the intervention of PI3K inhibitor or AMPK overexpression after 48 h of culture. Conclusion Seawater pearl hydrolysate can effectively inhibit 200 mJ cm−2 UVB‐induced photoaging of Hacat cells. The mechanism indicates removing the excessive ROS through increasing the antioxidation of photoaging Hacat cells. Once redundant ROS is eliminated, SPH works to reduce AMPK, increase PI3K‐Akt pathway expression, activate mTOR pathway to lowdown autophagy level, and as a result, inhibit apoptosis and aging in photoaging Hacat cells.