Abstract:
OBJECTIVE Study on the mechanism of Kebai mixture in the treatment of vitiligo.
METHODS This study established a normal human epidermal melanocytes culture system, added Kebai mixture and applied for a certain period of time. To determine the influence of Kebai mixture recipe on melanocyte proliferation, tyrosinase(Tyr) activity, melanocyte content by MTT method, L-DOPA method, NaOH decomposition method, respectively. The effect of the keratinocytes supernatant on the melanocytes was determined after the treatment with Kebai mixture. After blocking the Kit receptor with the specific antibody ACK2, the supernatant was treated with Kebai mixture to treat the melanocytes MITF, Tyr effect of expression.
RESULTS Kebai mixture of the concentration 2, 4 mg·mL
-1 showed no obvious cytotoxicity. Compared with the control group, the proliferation of melanocytes was significantly increased at 48 h(
P<0.01), and the Tyr activity was significantly increased (
P<0.01). At 56 h, there was no significant difference in melanin content between the two groups. The mRNA expression of c-kit in melanocytes was 4.43 times that of the control group; the mRNA expression of MITF was 2.98 times that of the control group; the expression of Tyr was 2.29 times that of the control group. The amount of stem cell factor(SCF) in the keratinocyte's supernatant of the Kebai mixture group was (52.78±11.24)ng·mL
-1, the control group was (38.43±10.87)ng·mL
-1, and the expression of SCF mRNA was 3.63 times that of the control group. The mRNA expression of c-kit was 4.45 times; the mRNA expression of MITF was 4.12 times, the expression of Tyr was 3.78 times; the proliferation of melanocytes was 1.89 times that of the control group, respectively. The amount of melanin synthesis was increased by 35%. After blocking the Kit receptor with the specific antibody ACK2, the expression of MITF and Tyr in melanocytes was significantly decreased, which was inferior to the blank group.
CONCLUSION Kebai mixture can promote the activity of melanocytes and increase the activity of Tyr. It may be through SCF/Kit/MITF signaling pathway.