The Effect of Lactobacillus plantarum Extracellular Vesicles from Korean Women in Their 20s on Skin Aging.

Extracellular vesicles, which are highly conserved in most cells, contain biologically active substances. The vesicles and substances interact with cells and impact physiological mechanisms. The skin is the most external organ and is in direct contact with the external environment. Photoaging and skin damage are caused by extrinsic factors. The formation of wrinkles is a major indicator of skin aging and is caused by a decrease in collagen and hyaluronic acid. MMP-1 expression is also increased. Due to accruing damage, skin aging reduces the ability of the skin barrier, thereby lowering the skin's ability to contain water and increasing the amount of water loss. L. plantarum suppresses various harmful bacteria by secreting an antimicrobial substance. L. plantarum is also found in the skin, and research on the interactions between the bacteria and the skin is in progress. Although several studies have investigated L. plantarum, there are only a limited number of studies on extracellular vesicles (EV) derived from L. plantarum, especially in relation to skin aging. Herein, we isolated EVs that were secreted from L. plantarum of women in their 20s (LpEVs). We then investigated the effect of LpEVs on skin aging in CCD986sk. We showed that LpEVs modulated the mRNA expression of ECM related genes in vitro. Furthermore, LpEVs suppressed wrinkle formation and pigmentation in clinical trials. These results demonstrated that LpEVs have a great effect on skin aging by regulating ECM related genes. In addition, our study offers important evidence on the depigmentation effect of LpEVs.

Creating Hierarchical Topographies on Fibrous Platforms Using Femtosecond Laser Ablation for Directing Myoblasts Behavior.

Developing an artificial extracellular matrix that closely mimics the native tissue microenvironment is important for use as both a cell culture platform for controlling cell fate and an in vitro model system for investigating the role of the cellular microenvironment. Electrospinning, one of the methods for fabricating structures that mimic the native ECM, is a promising technique for creating fibrous platforms. It is well-known that align or randomly distributed electrospun fibers provide cellular contact guidance in a single pattern. However, native tissues have hierarchical structures, i.e., topographies on the micro- and nanoscales, rather than a single structure. Thus, we fabricated randomly distributed nanofibrous (720 ± 80 nm in diameter) platforms via a conventional electrospinning process, and then we generated microscale grooves using a femtosecond laser ablation process to develop engineered fibrous platforms with patterned hierarchical topographies. The engineered fibrous platforms can regulate cellular adhesive morphology, proliferation, and distinct distribution of focal adhesion proteins. Furthermore, confluent myoblasts cultured on the engineered fibrous platforms revealed that the direction of myotube assembly can be controlled. These results indicate that our engineered fibrous platforms may be useful tools in investigating the roles of nano- and microscale topographies in the communication between cells and ECM.