Up and down regulation of melanin production of mouse melanoma B16C7 cellswith fatty acids

In the previous paper, we reported that free-linoleic acid in mise suppress ed melanin production of mouse melanoma B16C7 cells. In this paper, we stud ied the effect of several fatty acids on melanogenesis of mouse melanoma. A n unsaturated fatty acid, palmitoleic acid, strongly suppressed the melanin e production and a saturated fatty acid, palmitic acid, enhanced the melani ne production. Some other unsaturated fatty acids suppressed the melanine p roduction and some satulated fatty acids enhanced the melanine production. Tyrosinase activities of melanoma cells cultured with fatty acids demonstra ted that fatty acids controlled the cytoplasmic tyrosinase activity.