Journal
PIGMENT CELL RESEARCH
Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 149-158Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-0749.2003.00027.x
Keywords
U18666A; tyrosinase; cholesterol; melanosome; late endosome
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Funding
- NIAMS NIH HHS [T32 AR07190-27] Funding Source: Medline
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The 3beta-(2-diethylaminoethoxy)-androstenone HCl (U18666A), progesterone and several cationic amphiphilic drugs have been shown to alter the trafficking of a number of intracellular membrane proteins including CD63/Lamp-3, insulin growth factor 2/mannose 6-phosphate receptor (IGF2/MPR), and the Niemann-Pick C1 gene product (NPC1) as well as ganglioside GM(1). We have examined the effects of these compounds on cultured melanocytes at concentrations that have been shown to effectively alter intracellular trafficking. Treatment of melanocytes with U18666A (2.5 muM) or progesterone (15 muM) for 96 h decreased melanin content an average of 67% as compared with control without lowering the total cellular tyrosinase activity. Steroidal alkaloids that preferentially act on the Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway showed no related specificity in their ability to decrease pigmentation. In melanocytes treated with U18666A, tyrosinase accumulates in a compartment that contains both lysosome-associated membrane protein-1 (Lamp 1) and MPR, and stains with filipin, consistent with cholesterol-laden late endosomes/lysosomes. Our results suggest that tyrosinase, like the NPC1 gene product, traverses a U18666A-sensitive trafficking pathway.
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