Poster presentation, P147

Official XXIst International Pigment Cell Conference website - 21-24 Sept 2011, Bordeaux - France | updated: September 04 2011

N-Propionyl-4-S-Cysteaminylphenol Generates Reactive Oxygen Species and Mediates Apoptosis in Pigmented Melanoma Cells

N-propionyl-4-S-cysteaminylphenol (NPr-4-S-CAP) is selectively incorporated into melanoma cells as a substrate of the tyrosinase and degrades them. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the mechanism of the cell death induced by NPr-4-S-CAP and its antimelanoma effect. We first conducted cell proliferation assay, flow cytometric analysis and caspase assay to assess the growth-inhibitory activity and elucidation of the mechanism of cell death induced by NPr-4-S-CAP in vitro. We also examined the relation between the NPr-4-S-CAP-mediated ROS generation and cytotoxicity in pigmented and non-pigmented melanoma cells. Results indicated that NPr-4-S-CAP, but not inactive NPr-2-S-CAP, suppressed growth of B16F1 mice melanoma cells in a dose-depending manner. NPr-4-S-CAP-treated B16F1 cells showed degradation accompanied with an activation of caspase 3 and DNA fragmentation. Pigmented melanoma cell lines produced larger amounts of intracellular ROS and underwent apoptosis more significantly than non-pigmented cell lines. This suggests that NPr-4-S-CAP selectively induces apoptosis in pigmented melanoma cells and ROS generation plays an important role in the process.

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