A LOTION CONTAINING UNDECYLENOYL PHENYLALANINE AND ERGOTHIONEINE REDUCES MELANIN LEVELS WITHOUT AFFECTING TISSUE VIABILITY IN ARTIFICIAL SKIN CONSTRUCTS.

This study by scientists at AGI Dermatics demonstrated that MatTek’s MelanoDerm in vitro human skin tissue equivalent can be used to evaluate the depigmentation (lightening) effects of skin lotion additives caused by a reduction in melanin production without tissue/cell toxicity. AGI Dermatics scientists investigated the depigmentation properties of a lotion that contains two amino acid derivatives, namely undecylenoyl phenylalanine (UDP) and ergothioneine (EGT). UDP inhibits melanin formation by competing with á-MSH for binding to melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), while EGT inhibits the enzyme tyrosinase. A 2% pidobenzone lotion was also used in the study as the positive control while the untreated cultures serve as the negative control. Melanoderm-B engineered tissues from MatTek were treated daily with 2 ìl/cm2 of each lotion for 21 days. Pictures were taken each day with a light microscope under X300 magnification. The pictures were coded, randomized, and scored for the darkness of melanocytes by 10 evaluators trained with predetermined reference photographs, using a scale from 1.0 (lightest) to 4.0 (darkest). On the last day, the viability of the inserts was assessed based on the ability to reduce Alamar blue to its fluorescent form. Melanin levels of the UDP + EGT treated inserts were significantly reduced 53% compared to the untreated inserts after 13 days. There was a significant reduction in melanin levels in the inserts treated for a week with 2% pidobenzone; however, there were no viable cells after 21 days of treatment. In contrast, treatment with UDP + EGT caused only a 25% reduction in cell viability compared to the untreated inserts. Thus, the lightening effect of the UDP + EGT containing lotion was caused by a reduction of melanin production without overt cell/tissue toxicity.

Alamar blue, Depigmentation, MEL-300-B, Melanin levels, MelanoDerm, Melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), Pidobenzone, Tyrosinase, Viability

Ergothioneline (EGT), Undecylenoyl phenylalanine (UDP)