Objectives Salidroside, the predominant component of a Chinese herbal medicine, Rhodiola rosea L., becomes an attractive bio‐agent due to its multifunction. Although it is well proposed that this herbal medicine may have photoprotective effect according to the folk hearsay, the direct supportive experimental evidences linking the drug with skin ageing have rarely been reported so far. The study was conducted to investigate the photoprotective role of salidrosdie and its related mechanisms in vitro.

Methods First, a premature senescence model induced by UVB irradiation (250 mJ cm−2) in human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) was established, and senescent phenotypes were evaluated by cell morphology, cell proliferation, senescence‐associated beta‐galactosidase (SA‐β‐gal) activity and cell cycle distribution. Then the photoprotective effect of salidroside was investigated. Cells were pre‐treated with various doses of salidroside (1, 5 and 10 μM) followed by the sublethal dosage of UVB exposure and then were harvested for various detections, including senescence‐associated phenotypes and molecules, alteration of oxidative stress, matrix metalloproteinase‐1 (MMP‐1) secretion and inflammatory response.

Results Pre‐treatment of salidroside dose dependently reversed the senescent state of HDFs induced by UVB as evidenced by elevated cell viability, decreased SA‐β‐gal activity and relieving of G1/G0 cell cycle arrest. UVB‐induced increased protein expression of cyclin‐dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors p21WAF1 and p16INK4 was also repressed by salidrosdie treatment in a dose‐dependent manner. Meanwhile, the increment of malondialdehyde (MDA) level in UVB‐irradiated HDFs was inhibited upon salidroside treatment. Additionally, salidroside significantly attenuated UVB‐induced synthesis of MMP‐1 as well as the production of IL‐6 and TNF‐α in HDFs.