Damaging effects of UVA, blue light, and infrared radiation: in vitro assessment on a reconstructed full-thickness human skin

Paula Montero; Inés Roger; Javier Milara; Julio Cortijo

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1267409

Damaging effects of UVA, blue light, and infrared radiation: in vitro assessment on a reconstructed full-thickness human skin

Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Dec 1:10:1267409. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1267409. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Paula Montero^#^{1

2

3}, Inés Roger^#^{1

2

3}, Javier Milara^{1

3

4}, Julio Cortijo^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
² Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Europea de Valencia, Valencia, Spain.
³ Biomedical Research Networking Centre on Respiratory Diseases (CIBERES), Health Institute Carlos III, Madrid, Spain.
⁴ Pharmacy Unit, University General Hospital Consortium, Valencia, Spain.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Exposure to solar radiation can cause a range of skin damage, including sunburn, erythema, skin carcinogenesis, the release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), inflammation, DNA damage, and photoaging. Other wavelengths beyond UVB, such as UVA, blue light, and infrared radiation, can also contribute to the harmful effects of solar radiation. Reconstructed full-thickness human skin has the potential to serve as effective predictive in vitro tools for evaluating the effects of solar radiation on the skin. The aim of this work was to evaluate the damaging effects of UVA, blue light, and infrared radiation in a full-thickness skin model in terms of viability, inflammation, photoaging, tissue damage, photocarcinogenesis.

Methods: Full thickness skin models were purchased from Henkel (Phenion FT; Düsseldorf, Germany), and irradiated with increasing doses of UVA, blue light, or infrared radiation. Different endpoints were analyzed on the tissues: Hematoxylin-eosin staining, inflammation mediators, photoaging-related dermal markers and oxidative stress marker GPX1, evaluated by real-time quantitative PCR, as well as photocarcinogenesis markers by Western Blot.

Results and discussion: The results showed differential responses in cytokine release for each light source. In terms of photoaging biomarkers, collagen, metalloproteinases 1 and 9, elastin, and decorin were modulated by UVA and blue light exposure, while not all these markers were affected by infrared radiation. Furthermore, exposure to UVA and blue light induced loss of fibroblasts and modulation of the photocarcinogenesis markers p53 and p21. In conclusion, the presented results suggest that the various wavelengths of solar light have distinct and differential damaging effects on the skin. Understanding the differential effects of UVA, blue light, and infrared radiation can serve as a valuable tool to investigate the efficacy of photoprotective agents in full thickness skin models.

Keywords: blue light; full-thickness skin model; infrared light; photodamage; photoprotection; ultraviolet-A.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the grants PID2020-114871RB-I00 (JC) from Ministry of Science and Innovation, by PI20/01363 (JM) and CIBERES (CB06/06/0027) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III and CDTi (ARTSKIN IDI-20190271) from Ministry of Science and Innovation.