Expression of senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-Gal) by human skin fibroblasts, effect of advanced glycation end-products and fucose or rhamnose-rich polysaccharides

Expression by cells of the SA-β-Gal was shown to be a reliable indicator of the switch mechanism used by cells to enter the senescent phenotype. We used this method in order to explore the variation of SA-β-Gal-positive cells with passage number and time spent in culture. Both parameters produced an increase of SA-β-Gal-positive cells. The addition of a Maillard-product (advanced glycation end-product = AGE) to the fibroblast cultures also increased SA-β-Gal expression. Fucose- and rhamnose-rich oligo- and polysaccharides (FROPs and RROPs, respectively) provided a significant protection against this AGE-induced increase of SA-β-Gal-positive cells. It is speculated that these processes might well play an important role in skin aging.