Signal transduction mechanisms underlying ultraviolet-induced inflammatory responses in keratinocytes

Ultraviolet (UV) is a kind of important environmental factor that can cause dermatitis, photoaging and skin cancerization. The UV-induced production of inflammatory factors by epidermal keratinocytes has been deemed an important molecular event in occurrence of the above diseases. Various receptors, intracellular signal transduction-related regulatory molecules and nuclear transcription factors are involved in UV-induced inflammatory responses in keratinocytes, which mainly include epidermal growth factor receptor, aryl hydrocarbon receptor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, protein kinase C family, protein kinase B, mitogen-activated protein kinase family, nuclear factor-κB and transcription factor activator protein-1, etc, and constitute a complex inflammatory signal transduction network. Key words: Ultraviolet rays; Keratinocytes; Inflammation; Signal transduction; Protein kinases