Autophagy is fundamentally important in human health and disease. However, the contribution of autophagy to age-dependent changes in human skin has not been well described. In a past study, we found that autophagy is disrupted at the degradation step in dermal fibroblasts derived from aged women (aged fibroblasts), and this change could be involved in age-related alterations to extracellular matrix (ECM) components such as type I collagen, hyaluronan and elastin. The present study confirmed age-dependent changes in autophagy through in vivo experiments using transmission electron microscopy, and examined further contributions of autophagy to the function of dermal fibroblasts. To mimic disruption of autophagy in aged fibroblasts, young fibroblasts were treated with lysosomal enzyme inhibitors leupeptin and pepstatin. Treated fibroblasts showed decreased levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), which plays a key role in cellular energy metabolism. These findings suggest that age-dependent disruption of autophagy could be related to changes in cellular energy metabolism along with reduction of ECM components. In addition, we performed screening of plant extracts, and found that the extract of Hydrangea macrophylla var. thunbergii (Japanese name “Amacha”) significantly ameliorated disruption of autophagy in aged fibroblasts and increased NADH production. The extract of Hydrangea macrophylla var. thunbergii might thus improve skin conditions resulting from age-dependent changes in ECM and dermal fibroblasts.