SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J.—An aqueous extract from Pueraria lobata (kudzu) symbiosomes that contains leghemoglobin is able to stimulate procollagen production in human dermal fibroblasts, according to a study published in the International Journal of Science (2010;32(3):236). Cytoglobin is a hexa coordinateglobin protein. There are four human globin proteins that are now known—hemoglobin, myoglobin, neuroglobin and cytoglobin. In legumes, these proteins accumulate in symbiosomes (root nodules) of various legumes and are called leghemoglobin. Researchers said the extract may have this effect partly because leghemoglobin may mimic the function of cytoglobin by shuttling oxygen to prolyl-4-hydroxylase, the enzyme responsible for oxidizing proline residues in procollagen bundles. This hypothesis is supported by DNA microarray sequencing data that demonstrate treatment of normal human dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) with highly purified cytoglobin or leghemoglobin upregulates a number of key collagen-related genes including COL1A1 and COL1A2.