{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,8]],"date-time":"2026-09-08T19:30:03Z","timestamp":1788895803380,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,6]],"date-time":"2018-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1520294400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The extracts of Ficuscarica L. and Psoralen corylifolia L. are traditional Uygur medicines for the treatment of vitiligo, and its active ingredients furocoumarins, were are found to be the most effective agents against this skin disorder nowadays. Therefore, a series of novel easter derivatives (8a\u20138p) of furocoumarin were designed and synthesized based on our previous research to improve this activity in the present study. The synthesized derivatives were biologically evaluated for melanin synthesis in murine B16 cells and the SAR (structure-activity relationship) was summarized. Eight derivatives were more potent than positive control (8-MOP, 8-methoxypsoralan), especially compounds 8n (200%) and 8o (197%), which were nearly 1.5-fold potency when compared with 8-MOP (136%). Furthermore, the signaling pathway by which 8n activates the melanin biosynthesis was defined. Our results showed that it not only elevated the melanin content, but also stimulated the activity of tyrosinasein a concentration-dependent manner. Increasing of phosphorylation of Akt (also named PKB, protein kinase B) and non-activated GSK3\u03b2 (glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta), which inhibited the degradation of \u03b2-catenin were observed through Western blot analysis. The accumulation of \u03b2-catenin probably led to the activation of transcription of MITF (microphthalmia-associated transcription factor) and TYR (tyrosinase) family, as well as the subsequent induction of melanin synthesis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms19030746","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,6]],"date-time":"2018-03-06T12:16:27Z","timestamp":1520338587000},"page":"746","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":40,"title":["Novel Furocoumarin Derivatives Stimulate Melanogenesis in B16 Melanoma Cells by Up-Regulation of MITF and TYR Family via Akt\/GSK3\u03b2\/\u03b2-Catenin Signaling Pathways"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"given":"Chao","family":"Niu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Chemistry of Arid Zone, State Key Laboratory Basis of Xinjiang Indigenous Medicinal Plants Resource Utilization, Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Li","family":"Yin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Chemistry of Arid Zone, State Key Laboratory Basis of Xinjiang Indigenous Medicinal Plants Resource Utilization, Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China"},{"name":"University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4652-6879","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Haji","family":"Aisa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Plant Resources and Chemistry of Arid Zone, State Key Laboratory Basis of Xinjiang Indigenous Medicinal Plants Resource Utilization, Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,3,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"883","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jaad.2015.07.039","article-title":"Vitiligo is not a cosmetic disease","volume":"73","author":"Ezzedine","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. 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