Influence of Depigmenting Chemical Agents on Hair and Skin Color in Yellow (Pheomelanic) and Black (Eumelanic) Mice
March 1990
in “
Pigment Cell Research
”
TLDR Certain chemicals cause hair graying in black mice but not yellow mice.
Topical applications of monobenzylether of hydroquinone (MBEH) or intraperitoneal injections of phenol induced graying of hair in eumelanic (black) mice but had little effect on pheomelanic (yellow) mice. Amcinonide caused whitening of a few hairs in both types of mice. Phenol-treated eumelanic mice showed damaged follicular melanocytes incorporated into developing hair. The tail skin of both eumelanic and pheomelanic mice was not depigmented by phenol or MBEH, but MBEH stimulated melanogenic activity in tail epidermal melanocytes. Amcinonide reduced the number of DOPA-positive melanocytes in the tail epidermis and damaged its structure and function, partially reversed by MBEH but not by prostaglandin (PGE 2).
