The evaluation of antioxidant medication might provide further tools to protect the skin against the detrimental effects of photooxidative stress. In this context we have previously shown that the lazaroid tirilazad protects fibroblasts effectively against lipid peroxidation (LPO). Now we investigated whether and how tirilazad also influences two typical stress responses after UVA exposure, i.e. IL-6 and collagenase (MMP-1) release. Fibroblasts pre-incubated with tirilazad at a concentration of 30 microM show significantly less IL-6 in the extracellular medium after UVA exposure. Correspondingly, pre-incubation with tirilazad also significantly diminishes the extracellular MMP-1 protein concentration 24h post-irradiation. These effects observed are due to a membrane stabilisation, as tirilazad neither diminishes IL-6 mRNA production nor intracellular IL-6/MMP-1 protein levels after UVA exposure and thus most likely acts by sealing off the cell, delaying the typical leakage of IL-6 and MMP-1.