Supamas Napavichayanun
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Title: Tolerogenicity, anti-melanogenicity and anti-tyrosinase effects of sericin on melanocyte and dendritic cells: A possibility to alleviate post inflammatory hyperpigmentation
Biography
Biography: Supamas Napavichayanun
Abstract
Sericin has been conducted to characterize its immunomodulatory effects especially anti pro-inflammatory activities for
decades. In addition, it is also well known that hyperpigmentation disorders such as post inflammatory hyperpigmentation
(PIH) and melanoma, are a major concern not only in white skin type people, but also raises in darker skin type of Asian
population. Although there are many types of therapeutic products, more effective treatments still need to be evolved. The
important modulators of epidermal innate immune responses are melanocytes and dendritic cells (DCs), which composed of
induction, regulation, and maintenance of inflammatory responses on skin. However, the immunomodulatic role of sericin
on melanocytes and DCs relate to therapeutic effect of hyperpigmentation disorders has not been well established. Moreover,
sericin composes of the anti-tyrosinase property. Although the most prominent target for inhibitors of hyperpigmentation is
tyrosinase, unfortunately, a little is known about its anti-melanogenic property and clinical efficacy. In this study, we conducted
in vitro model and electron microscopic studies (immune-gold labeling) to determine (i) the tolerogenic effect sericin on
melanocytes and DCs indicated by the level of IL-10 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-ß, (ii) the anti-melanogenic
property of sericin characterized by tumor progressive marker (Mtif) and (iii) the anti-tyrosinase effect of sericin using
tyroninase marker. The results showed that sericin (at leat 5 μg/ml) composed of tolerogenicity, anti-tyroninase and antimelanogenicity
effects on melanocytes and DCs as demonstrated by the up-regulation of IL-10 and TGF- ß in association with
the down-regulation of tyrosinase and Mtif, respectively. This study provides the understanding of immunomodulatic role of
silk sericin on melanocytes and DCs underlying hyperpigmentation disorders lead to the applications allowing affected people
to have a better quality of life and their guidelines for therapeutic approaches.