Page 16 - A. Aging

[A. Aging-9]

Effects of tenascin C on stability of connective tissue and

skin aging

Young Eun Choi¹, Dong Hun Lee², Jin Ho Chung², Seung Taek Lee¹

¹Biochemistry, College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea ,

²Dermatology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 03080, Republic of Korea

TNC is found in the extracellular matrix of various tissues including the skin and plays diverse functions such as
adhesion, migration, and proliferation. The level of Tnc mRNA was significantly reduced in the skin tissue of aged

mice comared to young mice. In dermal and foreskin fibroblasts, TNC-small (S) and TNC-large (L) polypeptides,

which were translated from splice variants of TNC mRNA, were detected by SDS-PAGE and western blotting.
Although these variants were known to differ in adhesion, migration, and survival in certain cell types, both TNC-S
and TNC-L polypeptides increased type I collagen expression and reduced MMP-1 expression in foreskin fibroblasts.

Treatment of TNC-L induces phosphorylation of SMAD2 in foreskin fibroblasts by activation of the TGF-ß signaling
pathway. In addition, TNC-L produces more type I collagen in foreskin fibroblasts that were embedded within a

three-dimensional (3D) collagen matrix. In this context, we suggest that the expression of TNC contributes to the
stability of the connective tissue and also to the prevention of skin aging.