freckles and pigmented acne scars, are of serious concern to women. Their treatment usually involves the use of medicines or medicinal cosmetics containing depigmenting agents or skin-whitening agents. For example, hydroquinone and 4methoxyphenol are used as topical therapies for hyperpigmentation disorders. Active ingredients available for medicated whitening cosmetics in Japan include vitamin...

Chromobacterium violaceum presents a distinctive phenotypic characteristic, the production of a deep violet pigment named violacein. Although the physiological function of this pigment is not well understood, the sequencing of the genome of this bacterium has given some insight into the mechanisms and control of violacein production. It was found that erythrose-4-phosphate (E4P), a precursor to...

Phytochrome was partially purified from etiolated seedlings of Avena sativa L. Several properties of the red-absorbing (P(R)) and far-red absorbing (P(FR)) forms of the pigment were compared. The 2 forms could not be shown to differ with respect to their sedimentation velocity in sucrose density gradients, elution volume from Sephadex G-200 columns, binding properties on calcium phosphate, or e...

Bixa orellana (family Bixaceae) is a neotropical fast growing perennial tree of great agro-industrial value because its seeds have a high carotenoid content, mainly bixin. It has been used since pre-colonial times as a culinary colorant and spice, and for healing purposes. It is currently used as a natural pigment in the food, in pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries, and it is commercially k...

To test the hypothesis that increased Rap1a activity specifically in retinal pigment epithelial cells resists choroidal neovascularization (CNV), self-complementary adeno-associated virus 2 (scAAV2) with RPE65-promoter-driven GFP vectors were generated and introduced subretinally into Rap1b-deficient mice. Six-week-old mice that received subretinal control (scAAV2-Con) or constitutively active ...

PURPOSE The study was conducted to create a rapidly developing and reproducible animal model of subretinal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) that allows a time-dependent evaluation of growth dynamics, histopathologic features, and cytokine expression. METHODS C57BL/6 and chemoattractant leukocyte protein-2 deficient (DeltaCcl-2) mice were studied. Mice received single or combined subretinal ...

Background and objectives: Safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.) florets contain valuable red and yellow pigments and are used in food, textile dying, and pharmaceutical industries. Red carthamine pigment is formed from a yellow precursor, precarthamine, through an oxidation reaction at the end of flowers' maturation stage. The present study was conducted to find out the most effective ...

The anterior sensory vesicle of ascidian larvae contains a single large vesicle in which lie two distinct types of pigment cells, anterior and posterior. The ultrastructure of these pigment cells suggests that the anterior pigment cell is an otolith, presumably used for gravity detection, and the posterior pigment cell is an ocellus, used for photoreception. However, there is no direct experime...

Abstract. The use of biofertilizers based on plant growth promoting (PGP) bacteria is a promising direction in agri-biotechnology. purpose was to evaluate the PGP-attributes Bacillus sp. and reveal morphophysiological features rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) when inoculated with these rhizobacteria. Methods. ability strain TO15c isolated from rhizosphere Taraxacum officinale Zack's nitrogen-free m...