Ligustrum lucidum (L. lucidum) contains large quantities of ursolic acid and oleanolic acid. In this study, we evaluated anti-wrinkle effects of three parts of L. lucidum extracts. We found that L. lucidum extracts were not only innocuous to human skin fibroblasts but also significantly decreased the expression of both MMP-1 and MMP-2 and increased the expression of COL1A1. Among the three parts of L. lucidum extracts (i.e., fruit, cane, and leaf extracts), the fruit extract was found to contain the greatest amounts of ursolic acid and oleanolic acid. These three parts of L. lucidum extracts increased the expression of COL1A1 and decreased the expression of MMP-1 and MMP-2 in a dose-dependent manner. Especially, the fruit extract of L. lucidum had the greatest upregulating effect on COL1A1 and the greatest downregulating effect on MMP-1 and MMP-2 in a non-toxic and dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that L. lucidum, especially the fruit, could be used as active ingredients for functional cosmetics.
-Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are considered as probiotics with immunostimulatory property. In this study, we investigated the molecular mechanism of its immunostimulating potency on macrophages using combined preparation of LAB (cpLAB). cpLAB is able to strongly stimulate nitric oxide (NO) production as well as inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression from macrophage-like RAW264.7 cells. The cpLAB-induced NO release seemed to be mediated by extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) but not p38 and C-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), since U0126, an ERK inhibitor, clearly suppressed NO production. cpLAB significantly diminished the binding of toll like receptor (TLR)-2 antibody up to 25%, implying that cpLAB-mediated activation of macrophages may be required for the functional activation of TLR-2, but not TLR-4. Therefore, our data suggest that cpLAB may directly allow macrophages to immunostimulating potency via activation of TLR-2 and ERK.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.