Natural Tyrosinase Inhibitors: Role of Herbals in the Treatment of Hyperpigmentary Disorders.

Cutaneous pigmentation plays critical role in determining the color of skin along with photo protection of skin from dreadful effects of ultraviolet radiations. Conversely, abnormal accumulation of melanin is responsible for hyper pigmentary disorders such as melasma, senile lentigines and freckles. Because of the visible nature of dermatologic diseases, they have a considerable psychosomatic effect on affected patients.

Biochemical aspects of mammalian melanocytes and the emerging role of melanocyte stem cells in dermatological therapies.

Skin color in animals is richer than human beings and is determined by different types of pigments. Melanin is the key pigment responsible for the diverse pigmentation found in animal and human skin, hair, and eyes. Melanin pigment is synthesized by melanocytes and is consecutively transferred to adjacent keratinocytes; here, it acts as an internal sunscreen to defend from ultraviolet (UV) damage.

Recent Updates in Melanocyte Function: The Use of Promising Bioactive Compounds for the Treatment of Hypopigmentary Disorders.

Background: Skin pigmentation is a broadly appearing phenomenon in nature which plays an important task of determining the appearance and biology of all vertebrates including human beings. Skin color is a crucial attribute, determined by the synthesis of melanin pigment within melanocytes by the process of melanogenesis and is regulated by many extrinsic as well as intrinsic factors. Tyrosinase catalyzes the key step of melanogenesis, dysfunction of tyrosinase leads to reduce melanin production which results in severe clinical and aesthetical problems of hypopigmentation.

Understanding the ultrastructural aspects of berberine-induced skin-darkening activity in the toad, , melanophores.

Berberine is an active compound of (Daruhaldi) with known multiple pharmacological activities, including antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol-lowering, and anticancer effects. The present work aimed to study the ultrastructural effects of berberine to determine its skin-darkening potential using melanophores, which has not been done to date. Light and electron microscopic analysis of isolated dorsal skin melanophores of has been done after treatment with various concentrations of berberine, along with specific antagonists and agonists of β-adrenoceptors in order to explore the mechanism of action of berberine-induced skin darkening.

Microbial tyrosinases: promising enzymes for pharmaceutical, food bioprocessing, and environmental industry.

Tyrosinase is a natural enzyme and is often purified to only a low degree and it is involved in a variety of functions which mainly catalyse the o-hydroxylation of monophenols into their corresponding o-diphenols and the oxidation of o-diphenols to o-quinones using molecular oxygen, which then polymerizes to form brown or black pigments. The synthesis of o-diphenols is a potentially valuable catalytic ability and thus tyrosinase has attracted a lot of attention with respect to industrial applications. In environmental technology it is used for the detoxification of phenol-containing wastewaters and contaminated soils, as biosensors for phenol monitoring, and for the production of L-DOPA in pharmaceutical industries, and is also used in cosmetic and food industries as important catalytic enzyme.

Berberine-induced pigment dispersion in Bufo melanostictus melanophores by stimulation of beta-2 adrenergic receptors.

Reduced production of melanin by decreased or the absence of melanocytes leads to various hypopigmentation disorders, and the development of melanogenetic agents for photoprotection and hypopigmentation disorders is one of the top priority areas of research. Hence, the present study was carried out to elucidate the ability of berberine, a principal active ingredient present in the roots of the herb Berberis vulgaris to stimulate pigment dispersion in the isolated skin melanophores of the toad Bufo melanostictus. In the present study, mean melanophore size index of the isolated skin melanophores of B.

Collapsing glomerulopathy in an HIV-positive patient in a low-incidence belt.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) involves glomerular, tubulointerstitial, and vascular compartments of the kidney. The most common glomerular lesion is HIV-associated focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) and related mesangiopathies collectively termed HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN). A variety of immune-complex mediated glomerular diseases such as membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN), IgA nephropathy, and lupus-like glomerulonephritis also occur.