Salvianolic acid B regulates collagen synthesis: Indirect influence on human dermal fibroblasts through the microvascular endothelial cell pathway

Background Salvianolic acid B (SAB) is one of the main active ingredients of Salvia Miltiorrhiza. It has significant skin anti-aging, whitening, and sun protection properties. Aims The study aimed at studying the mechanism underlying the effect of salvianolic acid Bon collagen synthesis, which has good anti-aging efficacy and modulates microcirculation. Methods This study employed available public databases, bioinformatics methodologies, and the inverse docking approach to explore the effectiveness of SAB in the regulating collagen synthesis, and then used an human dermal fibroblast (HDF)- Human dermal microvascular endothelial cell (HDMEC) in vitro model to validate the predicted mechanism of SAB in influencing collagen synthesis. Results The results showed that NO production in SAB-treated HDMEC-conditioned medium was increased compared to that in control media, and the same tendency was also observed for growth factor production. SAB also upregulated HDMEC cellular eNOS and VEGF. When SAB-treated HDMEC conditioned medium was transferred to HDFs, the expression of collagen I, collagen III, and elastin in HDFs was upregulated and MMP-1 was downregulated. Conclusions The results show that SAB regulates collagen through the HDMEC-HDF pathway. Furthermore, the mechanisms might be closely related to the microcirculation factors NO and VEGF.