Effects of Neoagaro-oligosaccharides on the melanogenesis of B16 murine melanomal cells

Objective:To investigate the whitening effect of neoagaro-aligosaccharides on B16 murine melanomal cells.Methods: B16 murine melanomal cells were used in whitening effect assay and the commercial kojic and arbutin were selected as positive controls. The cell proliferation was detected by MTT assay,the activity of tyrosinase was assayed by dopa oxidase method and the content of melanin detected by NaOH assay.Results:The results showed that the hydrolysis products of Aga A (named as A) and Aga B (named as B) had low cytotoxicity with an IC50 about 3000μg/mL.There showed no expected significant tyrosinase-inhibition activity of A or B in the tyrosinase inhibition test.The inhibition activity of A was much lower than kojic with a stable inhibition rate about 20%,which was similar to arbutin.Although B showed a low inhibition activity on tyrosinase,it exhibited a better inhibition in melanin synthesis in the low concentration,which was also similar to arbutin.Conclusions:These results suggested that the neoagaro-oligosaccharides can be considered as a non-cell-toxic whitening agent for the skin.