Ficus deltoidea (Mas cotek) extract exerted anti-melanogenic activity by preventing tyrosinase activity in vitro and by suppressing tyrosinase gene expression in B16F1 melanoma cells

Abstract

Ficus deltoidea (Mas cotek) water extract has been widely used for woman health in Malaysia. Our investigation focused to identify anti-melanogenic efficacy of F. deltoidea since it has been known to have strong anti-oxidant activities. Anti-melanogenic effect of F. deltoidea extract was analyzed using cultured B16F1 melanoma cells. Cytotoxicity of the extract was measured using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay and determined the highest concentration of the extract that did not affect cell viability as 0.1% (w/v). α-MSH-induced melanin synthesis was significantly inhibited with dose-dependent manner by treatment of F. deltoidea leave extract, which was comparable to that of kojic acid. The extract directly inhibited mushroom tyrosinase activity and intracellular tyrosinase activity of B16F1 as well. The inhibition of intracellular tyrosinase activity was found to be exerted at the protein expression level when analyzed by immunoblot and tyrosinase zymography. The expression of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) was also reduced by the F. deltoidea extract. In conclusion, F. deltoidea extract has strong anti-melanogenic activity that is exerted by direct inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme activity and by down-regulation of the expression of genes involved in the melanogenesis pathways. Collectively, data shown in this study strongly suggest that F. deltoidea extract has potential to be used as a novel depigmenting agent for cosmetics.

Microarray as High Throughput Tool for Tyrosinase Gene Expression Analysis

“…Western blot is used in various studies which utilize expression profile of tyrosinase and other melanogenic enzymes to find out potent antimelanogenic agent. Oh et al [17] demonstrated reduced expression of tyrosinase and MITF gene by Ficus deltoidea extract through western blotting. Extracts of citrus press cakes, Oreocnide fruticosa and Agaricus bisporus were examined for their mealanogenic and antimelanogenic activity in terms of expression of melanogenic enzymes including tyrosinase by using western blot analysis [18][19][20].…”

Down-regulation of tyrosinase, TRP-1, TRP-2 and MITF expressions by citrus press-cakes in murine B16 F10 melanoma

“…In industrial point of view, cosmetics can help depigment skin color, which is one of the important parts among several functional cosmetic fields. Especially, development of novel whitening phytochemicals from natural sources has become new popular trends recently [10] . Actually, several studies have focused on the inhibition of melanogenesis and the prevention of abnormal pigmentation for cosmetic reasons [11][12][13] .…”

“…Cellular tyrosinase activity was measured by the method of Yen (1) rutin, (2) narirutin, (3) naringin, (4) hesperidin, (5) neohesperidin, (6) neohesperidin dihydrochalcone, (7) naringenin, (8) hesperetin, (9) aprgrnin, (10) nobiletin, (11) tangeretin, (12) auraptene was diluted with ethanol to obtain a series concentration of working solutions, and subjected to HPLC analysis.…”

Mangosteen leaf extract increases melanogenesis in B16F1 melanoma cells by stimulating tyrosinase activity in vitro and by up-regulating tyrosinase gene expression

“…A secreted melanin assay was performed as described previously with slight modifications (34,35). After 48 h, the culture medium was harvested and centrifuged at 10,000 rpm for 10 min.…”