196. USE OF MELANODERM™, AN EPIDERMAL MODEL CONTAINING FUNCTIONAL MELANOCYTES, FOR SKIN LIGHTENING STUDIES.

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Klausner, M., Breyfogle, B., Neal, P., Kubilus, J. MatTek Corp., Ashland, Massachusetts J. of Invest. Dermatol., 114, 859, Abstract #661, (2000).

Summary: There is considerable interest in developing both cosmetic and/or skin care pharmaceutical formulations which cause lightening of the skin. These products are utilized to cosmetically alter one's natural skin color or to combat skin pigmentation disorders such as melasma, postinflammatory hyperpigmentation, and other hyperpigmentation lesions. In order to aid in the development and testing of such products, we have produced MelanoDerm, a highly differentiated, three-dimensional tissue culture model of human epidermis that contains normal human melanocytes (NHM) and keratinocytes (NHK). Using cultures containing NHM from Black donors, the ability of ascorbic acid (AA) to effect skin pigmentation was investigated. Over a three-week period, control cultures become increasingly pigmented with retention of normal epithelial morphology. On the other hand, tissues cultured in medium containing 50 ug per ml of AA or tissues treated topically with 50 ug per ml AA remained distinctly lighter than control cultures. A newly developed, quantitative melanin assay showed that melanin content for the control tissues was 2.0 and 2.1 fold higher for tissues originally seeded at NHK/NHM ratios of 10:1 and 30:1, respectively. AA did not completely inhibit melanin synthesis, however, as melanin levels increased 3.2 fold over the 21-d culture period. These results suggest that this model will be useful to study melanogenesis, skin lightening, and other pigmentation phenomena of skin in vitro.

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MelanoDerm Data Sheet

MelanoDerm Technical Specifications

MelanoDerm Technical References

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Applications: Melanogenesis, Skin lightening/whitening, Skin pigmentation

Keywords: Alpha-MSH (a-MSH), Ascorbic acid, Asian donors, Black donors, Caucasian donors, Darkening, Kojic acid, L-dopa, Lightening, Melanin synthesis, MelanoDerm, Melanocytes, Melasma, NHEK, NHM, Normal human melanocytes, SLS, Skin lightening, Sodium lauryl sarconsinate, Whitening b-FGF

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