Radiation Effect Mechanism Research Group, National Institute of Radiological Sciences, Anagawa, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8555, Japan.
J Dermatol Sci. 2010 Feb;57(2):123-31. doi: 10.1016/j.jdermsci.2009.11.006. Epub 2009 Dec 31.
Although the function of human melanocytes is well characterized at cellular and molecular levels, the mechanism of the regulation of the life cycle (proliferation, differentiation, and cell death) of human melanocytes is not fully understood.
This study aims to clarify what factors are involved in regulating the life cycle of human melanocytes using serum-free culture system.
Human epidermal melanocytes were cultured in a serum-free growth medium supplemented with several kinds of growth factors, cytokines, and hormones and the effects of these factors on the life cycle of melanocytes were investigated in detail.
Of the factors tested, endothelin-1 (ET-1) stimulated the proliferation of melanoblasts and melanocytes in the presence of cyclic AMP (cAMP)-elevating factor such as dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) and of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). ET-1 also stimulated the proliferation and differentiation of human melanocytes in the presence of DBcAMP. Moreover, stem cell factor (SCF) stimulated the proliferation of melanoblasts and melanocytes synergistically with ET-1. The removal of ET-1 and SCF from the culture medium greatly inhibited the proliferation of melanocytes followed by apoptotic cell death.
These results suggest that the life cycle of human melanocytes is regulated by ET-1 and SCF in synergy with cAMP and bFGF.
尽管人类黑素细胞的功能在细胞和分子水平上得到了很好的描述，但人类黑素细胞生命周期（增殖、分化和细胞死亡）的调节机制尚未完全阐明。
本研究旨在使用无血清培养系统阐明哪些因素参与调节人类黑素细胞的生命周期。
将人表皮黑素细胞在含有多种生长因子、细胞因子和激素的无血清生长培养基中培养，并详细研究这些因素对黑素细胞生命周期的影响。
在所测试的因素中，内皮素-1（ET-1）在环磷酸腺苷（cAMP）升高因子（如二丁酰环磷酸腺苷（DBcAMP）和碱性成纤维细胞生长因子（bFGF））存在的情况下刺激黑素母细胞和黑素细胞的增殖。ET-1 也在 DBcAMP 存在的情况下刺激人黑素细胞的增殖和分化。此外，干细胞因子（SCF）与 ET-1 协同刺激黑素母细胞和黑素细胞的增殖。从培养基中去除 ET-1 和 SCF 会极大地抑制黑素细胞的增殖，随后导致细胞凋亡。
这些结果表明，人类黑素细胞的生命周期受 ET-1 和 SCF 的协同调节，与 cAMP 和 bFGF 一起。
