A low-molecular collagen peptide NS (CPNS) has recently been prepared from fish scales by fungal protease. In the preliminary study, CPNS administration to UVB-irradiated hairless mice for 12 weeks showed improved skin-functions, such as anti-wrinkle and moisturizing. In the current study, we aimed to use HaCaT keratinocytes to investigate the effects of CPNS on the production of hyaluronic acid (HA), as well as the expression of genes and proteins related to HA synthesis. We observed that exposure to CPNS does not exert any cytotoxicity to HaCaT keratinocytes, and dose-dependently increases the production of HA at doses ranging from 31.3 to 500 μg/mL. Real-time PCR results indicated that CPNS dose- and time-dependently induces up-regulation of the hyaluronic acid synthase 2 (HAS2) gene, which has an important role in HA synthesis, as well as down-regulates expression of the hyaluronidase 1 (HYAL1) gene involved in HA degradation. Furthermore, western blotting results indicated that CPNS treatment increases the levels of HAS2 protein, but decreases the HYAL1 protein levels within the HaCaT cells, in a time- and dose-dependent manner. In conclusion, our results indicate that in HaCaT cells, CPNS promotes the production of HA via up-regulation of HAS2 and down-regulation of HYAL1. We believe these results can potentially be applied as basic data for utilizing CPNS as the functional ingredient in moisturizing products.

Keywords: collagen peptide, moisturizing effect, hyaluronic acid, hyaluronic acid synthase, hyaluronidase