Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Aug 15;24(16):12810.
doi: 10.3390/ijms241612810.

Anti-Melanogenic and Antioxidant Activity of Bifidobacterium longum Strain ZJ1 Extracts, Isolated from a Chinese Centenarian

Jing Wu  1   2   3 , Funa Zhang  1   2   3 , Haixia Yu  3 , Shimei Qi  3 , Yu Wu  1   2   3 , Weihua Xiao  1   2   3
Affiliations

Anti-Melanogenic and Antioxidant Activity of Bifidobacterium longum Strain ZJ1 Extracts, Isolated from a Chinese Centenarian

Jing Wu et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Melanin produced by melanocytes protects our skin against ultraviolet (UV) radiation-induced cell damage and oxidative stress. Melanin overproduction by hyperactivated melanocytes is the direct cause of skin hyperpigmentary disorders, such as freckles and melasma. Exploring natural whitening agents without the concern of toxicity has been highly desired. In this study, we focused on a Bifidobacterium longum strain, ZJ1, isolated from a Chinese centenarian, and we evaluated the anti-melanogenic activity of the distinctive extracts of ZJ1. Our results demonstrated that whole lysate (WL) and bacterial lysate (BL) of ZJ1 ferments efficiently reduce α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH)-induced melanin production in B16-F10 cells as well as the melanin content in zebrafish embryos. BL and WL downregulate melanogenesis-related gene expression and indirectly inhibit intracellular tyrosinase activity. Furthermore, they both showed antioxidant activity in a menadione-induced zebrafish embryo model. Our results suggest that ZJ1 fermentation lysates have application potential as therapeutic reagents for hyperpigmentary disorders and whitening agents for cosmetics.

Keywords: Bifidobacterium longum; anti-melanogenic; antioxidant; pigmentation; tyrosinase; zebrafish.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

All authors do not have any financial or other interest related to the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
ZJ1 extracts decreased intracellular melanin in α-MSH-stimulated B16-F10 cells. B16-F10 cells were stimulated with α-MSH in the presence of extracts at the indicated concentration for 96 h. (A) Cell pellets of B16-F10 cells. (B) Intracellular melanin was quantified, and the histograms represent the mean ± s.e.m. of each extract from at least 3 batches.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bacterial lysate (BL) from ZJ1 decreased intracellular melanin in α-MSH- stimulated B16-F10 cells. Representative images show the morphology and intracellular melanin granules of B16-F10 cells stained with Masson–Fontana under the indicated conditions. The right panels are the zoom of the dashed-lined boxes from the left images, scale bar, 100 μm.
Figure 3
Figure 3
ZJ1 extracts inhibited intracellular tyrosinase activity. Monophenolase (A) and diphenolase (B) activities were determined using the substrates L-tyrosine and L-DOPA, respectively, and mushroom tyrosinase in the presence of ZJ1 extracts (BL, PS: 125 μg/mL; WL and CFS: 625 μg/mL). Kojic acid (25 μg/mL) was used as a positive control. (C,D) Intracellular tyrosinase activity of B16-F10 cells treated with BL (C) or WL (D) in the presence of α-MSH as shown in Figure 1. L-DOPA was used as substrate to determine DOPA oxidase activity of intracellular tyrosinase. Data are represented as the mean ± s.e.m. of 3–4 independent experiments.
Figure 4
Figure 4
BL and WL monitor melanogenesis-related gene expression in B16-F10 cells. B16-F10 cells were exposed to 500 nM α-MSH in the presence of BL (100 μg/mL) or WL (500 μg/mL), and then mRNA levels were determined with real-time RT-PCR. (A) Mitf, 12 h after treatment with BL and FL. (B–D) Tyr, Tyrp1 and Tyrp2, 72 h after treatment with BL and FL. The histograms represent the mean ± s.e.m. of 3 independent experiments. *, p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01, one-way ANOVA.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The inhibitory effects of the ZJ1 extract on melanogenesis in zebrafish larvae. Zebrafish larvae (24 hpf) were incubated with extracts at 80 μg/mL for 48 h, and PTU (30 μg/mL) was used as the positive control. (A) Representative bright-field images showing the pigmentation of zebrafish embryos treated with ZJ1 extracts at 72 hpf. Right panels are the zoom of the white dashed line. Scale bar, 100 μm. (B) The melanin content reduction (%) and (C) the inhibition of tyrosinase activity (%) of ZJ1 extracts on zebrafish larvae were quantified and normalised to the non-treated control. The histograms represent the mean ± s.e.m. of 3~4 independent experiments.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Antioxidant activity of ZJ1 extracts in a zebrafish embryo model. (A) Representative images of DCFH-DA-loaded zebrafish embryos treated with positive control Trolox (10 μg/mL) or ZJ1 extracts (25 μg/mL) in the presence of menadione to induce oxidative stress. No menadione addition was considered as the basal condition. Scale bar, 100 μm. (B) The histograms represent the mean ± s.d. of ROS clearance (%) from 8 replicates of one representative experiment (n = 3).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Ohbayashi N., Fukuda M. Recent advances in understanding the molecular basis of melanogenesis in melanocytes. F1000Research. 2020;9:608. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.24625.1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Slominski A., Tobin D.J., Shibahara S., Wortsman J. Melanin pigmentation in mammalian skin and its hormonal regulation. Physiol. Rev. 2004;84:1155–1228. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00044.2003. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Slominski A., Wortsman J., Luger T., Paus R., Solomon S. Corticotropin Releasing Hormone and Proopiomelanocortin Involvement in the Cutaneous Response to Stress. Physiol. Rev. 2000;80:979–1020. - PubMed
    1. Moreiras H., Seabra M.C., Barral D.C. Melanin Transfer in the Epidermis: The Pursuit of Skin Pigmentation Control Mechanisms. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021;22:4466. doi: 10.3390/ijms22094466. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Serre C., Busuttil V., Botto J.-M. Intrinsic and extrinsic regulation of human skin melanogenesis and pigmentation. Int. J. Cosmet. Sci. 2018;40:328–347. doi: 10.1111/ics.12466. - DOI - PubMed

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.
  NODES
twitter 2