Improvement of the production of an Arctic bacterial exopolysaccharide with protective effect on human skin cells against UV-induced oxidative stress.

Although microbial exopolysaccharides (EPSs) are applied in different fields, no EPS has been used to protect human skin cells against UV-induced oxidative stress. The EPS produced by the Arctic bacterium Polaribacter sp. SM1127 has high moisture-retention ability and antioxidant activity, suggesting its good industrial potentials. In this study, we improved the EPS production of SM1127 and evaluated its protective effect on human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) against UV-induced oxidative stress. With glucose as carbon source, the EPS yield was increased from 2.11 to 6.12 g/L by optimizing the fermentation conditions using response surface methodology. To lower the fermentation cost and decrease corrosive speed in stainless steel tanks, whole sugar, whose price is only 8% of that of glucose, was used to replace glucose and NaCl concentration was reduced to 4 g/L in the medium. With the optimized conditions, fed-batch fermentation in a 5-L bioreactor was conducted, and the EPS production reached 19.25 g/L, which represents the highest one reported for a polar microorganism. Moreover, SM1127 EPS could maintain the cell viability and integrity of HDFs under UV-B radiation, probably via decreasing intracellular reactive oxygen species level and increasing intracellular glutathione content and superoxide dismutase activity. Therefore, SM1127 EPS has significant protective effect on HDFs against UV-induced oxidative stress, suggesting its potential to be used in preventing photoaging and photocarcinogenesis. Altogether, this study lays a good foundation for the industrialization of SM1127 EPS, which has promising potential to be used in cosmetics and medical fields.