Inhibitory effects of generic drug danazol on melanogenesis in mouse B16 melanoma cells

• Main Authors: Jia-jhen Lin, 林家蓁
• Other Authors: Te-sheng Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/26879558639814293335

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 生物科技學系碩士班 === 99 === In the present study, we screened more than 100 generic drugs to verify their applicability as skin-lightening agents by using mouse B16 melanoma cells. Of these, danazol was found to inhibit melanogenesis in B16 cells in a dose-dependent manner with an IC50 value of 2.2 μM. In addition, danazol reduced cellular tyrosinase activity in B16 cells but not directly inhibited murine tyrosinase activity in the cell-free system. Applying a cream containing 0.4% danazol twice daily on the skin of mice also increased the skin-whitening index value after one week of treatment and the increase continued for another 30 days. Furthermore, western blotting analysis confirmed that danazol downregulated the level of tyrosinase protein in B16 cells, while reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis found that danazol did not downregulate the level of tyrosinase mRNA in the cells. These results demonstrated that danazol inhibits melanogenesis in B16 cells via reducing tyrosinase activity with a post-transcriptional regulation.