Abstract
An attempt was made to establish a quantitative assay-method of UV-protective ability of sun-protective cosmetics. A mouse melanoma cell line, B16, was seeded in micro-culture plates (96 well type) at a cell density of 4, 000 cells/0.4 ml MEM/well. After irradiation with UV at 350-370nm for 6hrs, melanins produced in B16 cells were measured at 405nm. Under the present experimental conditions, a linear quantitative relationship was observed between protection of an UV-absorbent, parasol MCX, and production of melanins in B16 cell cultures. Based on this result, several sun-protec tive cosmetics commercially available were examined for their inhibitory activity of melanin production. However, there was no co-relation between melanin-inhibitory activity and sun-protection factor (SPF value).
