Anti-glycation effect of gold nanoparticles on collagen.

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have been reported to exhibit a variety of biological effects including antiinflammatory and anti-oxidant activities. The extent of an in vitro glycation reaction mixture of collagen and glycolaldehyde was assayed to investigate the inhibition of glycolaldehye-derived advanced glycation end products (glycol-AGEs) formation with GNPs in collagen, which is a major protein component of the human dermis. GNP-treated collagen showed significantly less glycation (56.3 +/- 4.2%) than an untreated glycation control. Moreover, GNP-treated glycation in a collagen lattice model significantly decreased the AGEs distribution in the model system. Taken together, these results suggest that GNPs have the potential for use in the prevention of glycation-induced skin aging.