TY - JOUR
AR - CEI-2020-3-105
TI - Depigmenting Effect of Azelaic Acid and Glycolic Acid in MNT-1 and B16-F10 Melanoma Cells
AU - Kam , Weng Chia
AU - Chung , Keat Tan
AU - Siew , Keah Lee
AU - Shiau-Chuen , Cheah
JO - Clinical and Experimental Investigations
PY - 2020
DA - Fri 25, Dec 2020
SN - 2674-5054
DO - http://dx.doi.org/10.31487/j.CEI.2020.03.05
UR - https://www.sciencerepository.org/depigmenting-effect-of-azelaic-acid-and-glycolic-acid-in_CEI-2020-3-105 
KW -  Azelaic acid, glycolic acid, depigmentation, tyrosinase inhibitor, melanogenesis
AB - Treatment for abnormal melanin accumulation is available with controversial results, thus aim of the present
work was to determine azelaic acid (AZ) and glycolic acid (GLY) cytotoxicity and inhibiting melanogenesis
efficacy. Safety concentration and efficacy in reducing the melanin content were access through MTT assay,
Fontana-Masson staining, melanin content assay and tyrosinase (TYR) assay. Kojic acid (KO) was used as
the positive control throughout the assays. AZ and GLY exhibited low cytotoxicity at 100 µg/mL and do
not show suppression towards cell viability as cells were 100% viable. 100 µg/mL and 50 µg/mL AZ and
GLY show comparable depigment effect to the positive control in Fontana-Masson staining and the
depigmentation effect was dose dependent. 100 µg/mL AZ and 100 µg/mL GLY shows significant (P ≤
0.05) reduction of melanin content in both melanoma cells compared to untreated group. TYR activity in
both cells also shows significant lower (P ≤ 0.001) after the treatment with 100 µg/mL AZ and 100 µg/mL
GLY compared to untreated group. AZ and GLY were suggested to suppress melanin formation by directly
inhibiting TYR activity and act as TYR inhibitor. The depigmenting effect was further confirmed with
down-regulating of TYR, TYRP1 and TYRP2. The possible depigmentation mechanisms of AZ and GLY
could be due to inhibition of melanin synthesis and suppression of tyrosinase-related genes expression
including which affecting TYR activity. The depigmenting potential of AZ and GLY can be evaluate further
in-vivo model.