Asiaticoside delays senescence and attenuate generation of ROS in UV‑exposure cells through regulates TGF‑β1/Smad pathway

Asiaticoside, isolated from Centella asiatica, shows great improvement on wound healing and anti-oxidation function in vitro and in vivo. From previous research, asiaticoside possesses the potential capability to delay skin aging and reduce wrinkles clinically, but its underlying mechanism to regulate aging have not well-investigated. The present study found that asiaticoside could improve the viability and maintains a normal morphology in ultraviolet (UV)-exposure cells. In addition, β-galactosidase release was inhibited by treatment of asiaticoside in UV damaged cells was observed. The present study confirmed that UV-induced ROS generation and SOD reduction could be attenuated by incubation of asiaticoside. By using RNA sequencing technology, differential genes between UV and asiaticoside treatment were demonstrated and enriched genes suggested that asiaticoside is able to negatively regulate cell cycle and MAPK pathways. Western blotting was employed to clarify the variation of key proteins in TGF-β1/Smad pathway and cell cycle and the result implied that asiaticoside is capable of attenuating upregulation of TGF-β1, Smad2 and Smad3 to reverse cell senescence. The present study investigated regulation of asiaticoside to TGF-β1/Smad pathway in UV-induced HaCat cells, showing its potential to against photoaging.