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Considerable interest has been generated in age-related non-enzymatic glycosylation and crosslinking of collagen in view of its extracellular nature, and its long biological half-life. The effects of UVA, which penetrates deep in dermis, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) on age- related changes of dermal collagen were studied. The amount of nonenzymatic glycosylation, fragmentation, and crosslinking of collagen were monitored from the mixtures of Type I collagen from calf skin and glucose, irradiated by UVA, with or without scavengers of ROS. At both high and low glucose dosages, non-enzymatic glycosylation was not affected by UVA irradiation. At high glucose dosage, however, glycosylation was reduced by the scavengers of superoxide radical and singlet oxygen, bolt not by hydroxyl radical scavengers. Fragmentation was increased by UVA and decreased by all ROS scavengers. Crosslinking was also enhanced by UVA, and effectively blocked crosslinking. Superoxide radical and singlet oxygen, which were produced by autoxidation of glucose independently to UVA, may encounter the initial phase of glycation. ROS generated from Amadory compounds by UVA enhanced fragmentation and crosslinking Hydroxyl radical was thought to be a major ROS affecting crosslinking. These results suggest that UVA and ROS are able to enhance age-related structural changes of collagen, as affecting many other tissue and cellular components
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