...Zackie Aktary; Valérie Petit; Irina Berlin; Jeremy Raymond; Frederique Berger; Nisamanee Charoenchon; Evelyne Sage; Juliette Bertrand; Lionel Larue ABSTRACT Ultraviolet (UV) rays prompt a natural response in epidermal cells, particularly within melanocytes. The changes in gene expression...

...Dubravka Škalamera; Alexander J. Stevenson; Anna Ehmann; Stephen A. Ainger; Catherine Lanagan; Richard A. Sturm; Brian Gabrielli ABSTRACT Melanocytic cell interactions are integral to skin homeostasis, and affect the outcome of multiple diseases, including cutaneous pigmentation disorders...

... regulatory loop that maintains each of these important metabolic regulators in relative balance. Interestingly, direct regulation of v-ATPase genes by human MITF also occurs in cells of the melanocytic lineage, showing mechanistic conservation in the regulation of the v-ATPase by MITF family proteins in fly...

...Marta Abrisqueta; Cecilia Herraiz; Ana B. Pérez Oliva; Berta L. Sanchez-Laorden; Concepción Olivares; Celia Jiménez-Cervantes; José C. García-Borrón Summary The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) is a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) crucial for the regulation of melanocyte proliferation...

... of proteins from the trans-Golgi network, but how they function in the sorting of various melanosome-specific proteins such as Pmel17, an essential structural component of melanosomes, in melanocytes is unknown. We characterized the processing and trafficking of Pmel17 via adaptor protein complexes within...

...Burkhard Wiesner; Birgit Roloff; Klaus Fechner; Andrzej Slominski Using confocal laser scanning microscopy we investigated the Ca 2+ distribution in single corticotropin releasing factor- and urocortin-stimulated human skin cells. The models tested included melanoma cells, neonatal melanocytes...

...Zalfa A. Abdel-Malek; M. Cathy Scott; Minao Furumura; M. Lynn Lamoreux; Michael Ollmann; Greg S. Barsh; Vincent J. Hearing ABSTRACT The agouti gene codes for agouti signaling protein (ASP), which is temporally expressed in wild-type mouse follicular melanocytes where it induces pheomelanin...

... of cell surface receptors and proto-oncogene products, have been shown to stimulate melanocyte proliferation. However, natural factors responsible for the optimal stimulation of normal human melanocyte growth, either isolated or co-cultured with keratinocytes, remain largely unknown. a MSH (α melanocyte...

...Dorothy C. Bennett ABSTRACT Pigmentation has long been a favourite and easily used marker in the genetics of diverse organisms. Mammalian integumental pigments are melanins, synthesized by melanocytes in the epidermis and hair bulbs. Our understanding of mammalian pigmentation genes has been...

...Dorothy C. Bennett; Katherine Bridges; Ian A. Mckay ABSTRACT Strains of pigmented melanocytes can be derived reproducibly from normal human skin. Published procedures have been modified here to yield a strain, ‘Nohm-l’, comprising many unpigmented cells as well as cells with various degrees...