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Adiponectin, a protein hormone expressed in visceral and/or subcutaneous fat cells and secreted into the whole body, modulates a number of metabolic processes, including glucose regulation and fatty acid oxidation. Recently, it was reported that adiponectin is also expressed in skin, which plays important roles in inflammation, angiogenesis, tissue remodeling, and autophagy process. Repeated skin damage and imperfect repair caused by chronic UV exposure results in wrinkle formation and also induces chronic inflammation, leading to “photoaging” and “inflammaging”. UV irradiation downregulates the adiponectin expression and leads to the exacerbation of photoaging by stimulating MMP-1 expression and inhibiting procollagen synthesis. Recently, we found that the expression of adiponectin was downregulated by UV exposure in the cultured fibroblast. Interestingly, treatment of a newly developed autophagy activator, AdipoSol™, stimulated the expression of adiponectin and also prevented the UV-induced deleterious responses (MMP-1 expression), at least in part, through stimulating the adiponectin expression. Furthermore, UV irradiation induced inflammatory cytokine expression in cultured keratinocytes was also downregulated by autophagy activator treatment. These results suggest that adiponectin plays important roles in skin homeostasis and photoaging, and topical application of adiponectin expression stimulator can exert antiaging and anti-inflammatory effects. Also, stimulation of autophagy signaling can upregulate the expression of adiponectin in skin, which suggest that topical autophagy activator application might be a new antiaging and anti-inflammatory ingredient.
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