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Chronic stress induces fur color change from dark to brown by decreasing follicle melanocytes and tyrosinase activity in female C57BL/6 mice

SHEN Xiao-Liang¹, LIU Yun-Zi1¹, GONG Hong¹, ZHANG Yi¹, WU Teng-Yun¹, XIA Min², JIANG Chun-Lei^1,*

¹Department of Stress Medicine, Faculty of Psychology, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200043, China；²State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China

Abstract

Increasing evidence suggests that stress may induce changes in hair color, with the underlying mechanism incompletely understood. In this study, female C57BL/6 mice subjected to electric foot shock combined with restraint stress were used to build chronic stress mouse model. The melanin contents and tyrosinase activity were measured in mouse skin and B16F10 melanoma cells. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to determine the content of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), interleukin- 1β (IL-1β) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the mouse skin. The content of nuclear factor κB (NFκB)/p65 subunit in mouse skins was valued by immunofluorescence staining. The results demonstrated that under chronic stress, the fur color turned from dark to brown in C57BL/6 mice due to the decrease of follicle melanocytes and tyrosinase activity in C57BL/6 mouse skin. Simultaneously, inflammatory responses in skins were detected as shown by increased NFκB activity and TNF-α expression in stressed mouse skin. In cultured B16F10 melanoma cells, TNF-α reduced the melanogenesis and tyrosinase activity in a dose-dependent manner. These findings indicate that chronic stress induces fur color change by decreasing follicle melanocytes and tyrosinase activity in female C57BL/6 mice, and TNF-α may play an important role in stress-induced hair color change.

Key words: chronic stress; fur color; melanocyte; melanin; tyrosinase activity; inflammation

Received: 2019-08-25　　Accepted: 2020-02-27

Corresponding author: 蒋春雷　　E-mail: cljiang@vip.163.com

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2020.0018

Citing This Article：

SHEN Xiao-Liang, LIU Yun-Zi1, GONG Hong, ZHANG Yi, WU Teng-Yun, XIA Min, JIANG Chun-Lei. Chronic stress induces fur color change from dark to brown by decreasing follicle melanocytes and tyrosinase activity in female C57BL/6 mice. Acta Physiol Sin 2020; 72 (2): 139-147