Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 23|pp 25180—25194

Licochalcone A activation of glycolysis pathway has an anti-aging effect on human adipose stem cells

Yating Wu¹, Hao Wang², Jianbo Zhu¹, Haitao Shen¹, Hailiang Liu^1,²

¹Key Laboratory of Xinjiang Phytomedicine Resource and Utilization of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China
²Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200123, China

* Equal contribution

Received: August 3, 2021Accepted: November 23, 2021Published: December 3, 2021

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203734

Copyright: © 2021 Wu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Licochalcone A (LA) is a chalcone flavonoid of Glycyrrhiza inflata, which has anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects. However, no anti-aging benefits of LA have been demonstrated in vitro or in vivo. In this study, we explored whether LA has an anti-aging effect in adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs). We performed β-galactosidase staining and measured reactive oxygen species, relative telomere lengths, and P16^ink4a mRNA expression. Osteogenesis was assessed by Alizarin Red staining and adipogenesis by was assessed Oil Red O staining. Protein levels of related markers runt-related transcription factor 2 and lipoprotein lipase were also examined. RNA sequencing and measurement of glycolysis activities showed that LA significantly activated glycolysis in ADSCs. Together, our data strongly suggest that the LA have an anti-aging effect through activate the glycolysis pathway.