Project description:UVB is one of the external stimuli posing a significant threat to the skin. Excessive exposure to UVB may trigger intracellular effects including inflammatory responses and oxidative stress, leading to severe skin issues. Peony seed oil is a nut oil unique to China, rich in unsaturated fatty acids, and reported to possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Paeonia delavayi is a distinctive subspecies within the peony family, primarily distributed in southwestern China and high-altitude regions. This study aims to investigate the roles and underlying mechanisms of P. delavayi seed oil (PDSO) in protecting skin from UVB-induced damage. We found that treatment with PDSO effectively mitigated the adverse effects of UVB exposure on NHEK cells, including reduced viability and impaired migratory capacity. Additionally, PDSO significantly suppressed the upregulation of pro-inflammatory genes such as TNF, IL6, CXCL8 and PTGS2 in keratinocytes induced by UVB. Subsequent studies indicated that PDSO also alleviated UVB-induced oxidative stress and photoaging in NHEK cells, manifested by reducing ROS and MDA levels, upregulating antioxidant-related genes expression, and suppressing the expression of genes associated with cellular senescence. RNA-sequencing analysis and western blot assay revealed that PDSO exerts an inhibitory effect on the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway. We also found that PDSO suppressed the activation of the NF-κB pathway in UVB-irradiated NHEK cells. Thus, this study demonstrates that PDSO holds significant potential in protecting skin from UVB-induced damage and reveals that its mechanism of action involves the PI3K/Akt/mTOR and NF-κB signaling pathways.
Project description:We used high-throughput sequencing to identify conserved and nonconserved miRNAs and other short RNAs in Paeonia ostii under control and copper stressed condition. 102 previously known plant miRNAs were identified and classified into 89 families according to their gene sequence identity. Some miRNAs were highly conserved in the plant kingdom suggesting that these miRNA play important and conserved roles. Combined our transcriptome sequencing data of Paeonia ostii under same conditions, 34 novel potential miRNAs were identified. The potential targets of the identified known and novel miRNAs were also predicted based on sequence homology search. Comparing the two libraries, it was observed that 12 conserved miRNAs and 18 novel miRNAs showed significantly changes in response to copper stress. Some of the new identified potential miRNAs might be involved in Paeonia ostii-specific regulating mechanisms under copper stress. These results provide a framework for further analysis of miRNAs and their role in regulating Paeonia ostii response to copper stress.