Biomarine extracts significantly protect from ultraviolet A-induced skin photoaging: an ex vivo study.

We tested the activity of the marine nutraceutical CL-1222 added with a coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)-lutein-selenium component (Celergen(®), Laboratoires-Dom, Switzerland) to protect human fibroblasts against ultraviolet A (UVA)-induced photoaging. Cells obtained from 22- to 39-year-old healthy donors were pretreated with CL-1222 before UV irradiation, as compared with same quantity of the CoQ10-lutein-selenium component. As compared to untreated control, UVA-irradiated samples exhibited a significant increase of secreted matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) (p<0.001) with over four-fold MMP-1 upregulation (p<0.001). Samples treated with CL-1222, but not with the CoQ10-lutein-selenium component, showed a significant decrease of MMP-1 secretion (p<0.01) and expression decrease (>60%, p<0.01) with >54% elastase activity inhibition (p<0.01). This preliminary study shows that such marine nutraceuticals can significantly protect against UV-irradiation irrespective of the CoQ10-lutein-selenium component with a specific protective gene expression modulation amenable to novel clinical applications.