The Inhibitory Effect of Crocin on Melanogenesis of B16F10 Melanoma Cell Line

Abstract

Introduction: Saffron has some applications such as anti-spasmodic and analgesic effects in traditional medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti melanogenesis and antioxidant properties of crocin (one of the saffron active components) on B16F10 mouse melanoma cell line. Methods: In this experimental study, B16F10 cells were prepared from Pasteur Institute (NCBI) and were grown in medium containing 10% FBS with 1% antibiotics at 37° C.Then, the cell viability was assessed, the inhibitory effect of crocin on melanogenesis was investigated by fungal tyrosinase,and  tyrosinase activity assessment, melanin synthesis and cellular antioxidant capacity was evaluated after treatment with various concentrations of crocin (1, 2, 4, 8, 16 µg/ ml) by DCFDA assay. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS software, one way ANOVA, Tukey test at p ≤0.05. Results: The data revealed no significant cytotoxicity of crocin(p>0.05) (concentrations of 1-16 µg/ ml) on B16F10 cells, in addition, fungal tyrosinase activity (***p≤ 0.001), intracellular tyrosinase activity (*p< 0.05, **p≤ 0.01) and melanin content (*p< 0.05, **p≤ 0. 01 , ***p≤ 0.001)  have suppressed in a dose-dependent manner. Further, reduction of free radicals in treated melanoma cells exhibited that crocin in concentrations of 4and 8 µg/ ml in p<0.05 and-16 µg/ mlin p≤ 0.001 possess significant antioxidant efficacy. Conclusion: Our results elucidated that crocin was proposed as melanogenesis inhibitor in B16F10 cells, which can be considered as an effective whitening agent.

Keywords

• Melanogenesis
• Melanoma
• Saffron
• Crocin