p53-Transcriptional-regulated proteins interact with a large number of other signal transduction pathways in the cell, and a number of positive and negative autoregulatory feedback loops act upon the p53 response. P53 directly controls the POMC/α-MSH productions induced by ultraviolet (UV) and is associated with UV-independent pathological pigmentation. When identifying the causative gene of dy...

Leptin has emerged over the past decade as a key hormone not only in energy balance regulation but also in neuroendocrine and inflammatory processes. The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether hyperleptinemia deregulates neuropeptides during weight loss. A total of 86 post-pubertal obese adolescents (with or without hyperleptinemia) participated in one year of interdisciplinary weight...

Recent studies have shown that plumbagin has anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, antibacterial, and anti-cancer activities; however, it has not yet been shown whether plumbagin suppresses alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH)-induced melanin synthesis to prevent hyperpigmentation. In this study, we demonstrated that plumbagin significantly suppresses α-MSH-stimulated melanin synthesis in B...

The melanocortin-3 receptor (MC3R) is primarily expressed in the hypothalamus and plays an important role in the regulation of energy homeostasis. Recently, some studies demonstrated that MC3R also signals through mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), especially extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2). ERK1/2 signaling is known to alter gene expression, potentially contribu...

The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), a GS-coupled receptor that signals through cAMP and protein kinase A (PKA), regulates pigmentation, adaptive tanning, and melanoma resistance. MC1R-cAMP signaling promotes PKA-mediated phosphorylation of ataxia telangiectasia and rad3-related (ATR) at Ser435 (ATR-pS435), a modification that enhances nucleotide excision repair (NER) by facilitating recruitment...

Schizandrae Fructus (SF), fruits of Schisandra chinensis (Turcz.) Baill. and Hoveniae Semen cum (HSCF), the dried peduncle Hovenia dulcis Thunb., have long been used for alcohol detoxification in traditional medicine Korea China. In current study, we aimed to evaluate potential synergistic hepatoprotective effect a combination mixture (MSH) comprising fermented SF pomace (fSFP) HSCF hot water e...

The melanocortin receptors in intraorbital and extraorbital rat lacrimal glands were studied with [125I][Nle4,D-Phe7]alpha MSH as radioligand and with several unlabeled melanocortin peptides. The pharmacological properties of the melanocortin receptor in both tissues appeared to be essentially identical. Receptor binding was studied in a membrane fraction sedimented at 12,000-100,000 X g, estab...

An analysis of the factors that influence the increase in plasma immunoreactive beta-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (beta-MSH) concentration in chronic renal failure showed that: (a) the increase correlated with the increase in serum creatinine concentrations; (b) beta-MSH was not cleared from the plasma by haemodialysis; (c) beta-MSH concentrations increased with length of time on dialysis and...