Despite the critical role of melanin in the protection of skin against UV radiation, excess production of melanin can lead to hyperpigmentation and skin cancer. Pear fruits are often used in traditional medicine for the treatment of melasma; therefore, we investigated the effects of pear extract (PE) and its component, protocatechuic acid (PCA), on melanogenesis in mouse melanoma cells. We foun...

Skin pigmentation disorders typically involve an overproduction or uneven distribution of melanin, which results in skin spots. Resveratrol can inhibit tyrosinase, the active enzyme in the synthesis of melanin, but it does not inhibit the synthesis of melanin to an extent that enables its use alone as a skin whitening agent in pharmaceutical formulations, so its use as a coadjuvant in treatment...

Asians differ from Caucasians as photoageing tends to present with pigmentary changes as the main issue. Furthermore, with a higher epidermal melanin context, there is a greater risk of complications especially postinflammatory hyperpigmentation and such high epidermal melanin context also acts as a competing chromophobe for the underlying target. In this review article, recent advances in the ...

The relatively high co-occurrence of Parkinson's disease (PD) and melanoma has been established by a large number of epidemiological studies. However, a clear biological explanation for this finding is still lacking. Ultra-violet radiation (UVR)-induced skin melanin synthesis is a defense mechanism against UVR-induced damage relevant to the initiation of melanoma, whereas, increased neuromelani...

BACKGROUND 3,4,5-Trihydroxybenzoic acid glucoside (THBG), a molecule produced by an original biocatalysis-based technology, was assessed in this study with respect to its skin photoprotective capacity and its skin color control property on Asian-type skin at a clinical level and on skin explant culture models. METHODS The double-blinded clinical study was done in comparison to a vehicle by th...

Intracellular ion channels are essential regulators of organellar and cellular function, yet the molecular identity and physiological role of many of these channels remains elusive. In particular, no ion channel has been characterized in melanosomes, organelles that produce and store the major mammalian pigment melanin. Defects in melanosome function cause albinism, characterized by vision and ...

Nowadays herbal medicines of skin-whitening cosmetics are popular with women. We attempted to find the whitening activity compounds present in many herbal medicines used for this purpose and discuss their mechanisms in melanin biosynthesis. The 70% acetone extracts of 10 kinds of herbs were investigated for their mushroom tyrosinase activity inhibition. Among these 10 extracts, Chinese galls sh...

It is assumed that skin is protected against sunburn by melanin. In patients with vitiligo, there are white patches in the normal pigmented skin. We noticed that there is a difference in burning capacity of these white patches between people with different skin types. With UVB 311 nm lamps, we irradiated both lesional and non-lesional skin with increasing doses in 33 patients with vitiligo, div...

Exposure of human skin to low doses of solar UV radiation (UVR) causes increased pigmentation, while chronic exposure is a powerful risk factor for skin cancers. The mechanisms mediating UVR detection in skin, however, remain poorly understood. Our recent studies revealed that UVR activates a retinal-dependent G protein-coupled signaling pathway in melanocytes. This phototransduction pathway le...

Hair follicle offers an excellent model for systems biology and regenerative medicine. So far, the stages of hair follicle growth have been evaluated by histological examination. In this work, a noninvasive spectroscopy was proposed by measuring the diffuse reflectance of mouse skin and analyzing the melanin value. Results show that the skin diffuse reflectance was relatively high when hair fol...