@article{oai:repo.qst.go.jp:00045328,
 author = {Hirobe, Tomohisa and Ishizuka, Kenji and Ogawa, Shigeru and Abe, Hiroyuki and 廣部 知久},
 issue = {11},
 journal = {Zoological Science},
 month = {Nov},
 note = {The mouse pink-eyed dilution (p) locus is known to control the melanin content in the melanocyte. However, it is not known whether the p gene is involved in regulating the proliferation and differentation of melanocytes during development, especially the biogenesis of melanosomes and other organelles. Epidermal cell suspensions of the neonatal dorsal skin derived from wild type mice at the p locus (black, C57BL/10JHir-P/P) and their congenic mutant (pink-eyed dilution, C57BL/10JHir-p/p) were cultured with a serum-free melanocyte-proliferation medium (MDMD). The supplement of additional L-tyrosine (Tyr) into MDMD stimulated the differentiation of p/p melanoblasts into melanocytes. Electron microscopy revealed that in p/p melanoblasts and melanocytes treated with L-Tyr, the number of stage II and III melanosomes dramatically increased. Moreover, p/p melanoblasts possessed smaller but more numerous mitochondria than P/P melanocytes. The treatment of p/p melanoblasts and melanocytes with L-Tyr decreased the number of mitochondria. The supplement of 2, 4-dinitrophenol (DNP), an inhibitor of mitochondrial function, into MDMD stimulated both proliferation and differentiation of p/p melanoblasts. Simultaneous treatment of DNP and L-Tyr dramatically stimulated the differetiation of p/p melanocytes. These results suggest that L-Tyr and some unknown factors related to the mitochondrial function may influence the differentiation of melanoblasts in the epidermis of p/p mice.},
 pages = {1057--1065},
 title = {Mitochondria are more numerous and smaller in pink-eyed dilution melanoblasts and melanocytes than in wild-type melanocytes in the neonatal mouse epidermis.},
 volume = {25},
 year = {2008}
}