Stage-specific phenotypic and transcriptional alterations in keratinocytes exposed to acute and chronic blue light

Abstract

Despite evidence that visible light (VL) has similar effects on human skin as those of UVA, VL is often viewed as harmless. High SPF sunscreen prevents erythema but can lead to overexposure to UVA and VL, with unknown consequences. To explore the impact of chronic blue light exposure, we irradiated (50 J/cm{superscript 2}, {lambda}= 408 nm, three times a week) human immortalized keratinocytes under acute (3 irradiations), intermediate (14 irradiations), and chronic (42 irradiations) blue-light exposure, monitoring phenotypic and gene expression changes. Chronically exposed keratinocytes exhibit increased nuclei area, chromatin alterations, higher proliferation, and apoptosis resistance, mirroring the consequences of chronic UVA exposure. While acute exposure upregulated keratinization and downregulated tissue repair and apoptosis genes, chronically exposed cells had upregulated genes involved with energy metabolism and oxidative phosphorylation and downregulated genes were enriched for immune and inflammatory responses. Specific transcriptional factors were identified in the acute and chronic stages, some of them had been associated with UVB exposure. We identified some changes in chronically irradiated keratinocytes similar to the malignant transformation, emphasizing the need for further research on the long-term impacts of blue light exposure on human skin.