The loss of tyrosinase, the key enzyme in melanin synthesis, has been implicated in the dedifferentiation of malignant melanocytes. The presence of tyrosinase transcripts and antigenic peptides in melanoma tumors prompted us to investigate whether the basis for the loss of the enzyme was proteolytic degradation. Toward this aim, we followed the kinetics of synthesis, degradation, processing, ch...

There is a continual need to develop novel and effective melanogenesis inhibitors for the prevention of hyperpigmentation disorders. The plant Artemisia capillaris Thunberg (Oriental Wormwood) was screened for antipigmentation activity using murine cultured cells (B16-F10 malignant melanocytes). Activity-based fractionation using HPLC and NMR analyses identified the compound 4,5-O-dicaffeoylqui...

Richter and Clisby (1) have investigated the t,oxic effect of phenylthiocarbamide in rats. The acute toxic effect is characterized by an effusion of fluid into the thoracic cavity, but in chronic poisoning there is a lowered body temperature, which suggests a depression of metabolism, and compensatory changes in the thyroid. It was therefore of interest to test the effect of the drug in vitro o...

A new melanin biosynthesis inhibitor, melanoxazal, was isolated from the fermentation broth of Trichoderma sp. ATF-451 by successive purification procedures of carbon adsorption, ethyl acetate extraction and silica gel column chromatography. The inhibitor possesses a novel oxazole-containing structure with molecular formula, C8H9NO3. The structure was determined by means of NMR analyses to be (...

We investigated the inhibitory effects of hesperidin on melanogenesis. To find melanosome transport inhibitor from natural products, we collected the structural information of natural products from Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) and performed pharmacophore-based in silico screening for Rab27A and melanophilin (MLPH). Hesperidin did not inhibit melanin production in B16F10 murine mela...

experimental autoimmune vitiligo was induced by the intradermal injection of the purified mushroom tyrosinase emulsified in complete freund’s adjuvant (cfa) in female c57bl/6 mice. the onset of vitiligo was characterized by hair hypopigmentation and total melanocyte depletion in the basal layer of the epidermis. oral administration of semipurified mushroom tyrosinase prevented experimental auto...

BACKGROUND The most widely accepted criteria for the evaluation of prognosis of malignant melanoma are histopathologic and clinical presentation. No currently available laboratory tests provide additional prognostic information. It has recently been suggested that reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-based detection of tyrosinase messenger RNA (mRNA) in peripheral blood ...

[Z-W]Thiouracil and [%]thiouracil are incorporated into the melanin of chick retinal pigment epithelium incubated in vitro. This synthesis of a thiouracil pheomelanin (thiolcuntaining melanin) can be used to measure the rate of melanin synthesis in living cells. Thiouracil incorporation is dependent on tyrosinase activity: incorporation is inhibited by phenylthiourea, a tyrosinase inhibitor, an...

[Z-W]Thiouracil and [%]thiouracil are incorporated into the melanin of chick retinal pigment epithelium incubated in vitro. This synthesis of a thiouracil pheomelanin (thiolcuntaining melanin) can be used to measure the rate of melanin synthesis in living cells. Thiouracil incorporation is dependent on tyrosinase activity: incorporation is inhibited by phenylthiourea, a tyrosinase inhibitor, an...

Tyrosinase, the enzyme that controls the synthesis of melanin, is a unique product of melanocytes. Normal and malignant human melanocytes grown in culture were used to study the factors that regulate the expression of tyrosinase. Immunoprecipitation experiments showed that newly synthesized tyrosinase appeared as a protein with an apparent molecular weight of 70,000 that was processed to a prot...