Traditional Chinese medicine has utilized various parts of Morus alba L (white mulberry) to ameliorate chronic sicknesses caused by organ or tissue disorders. We investigated the effects of the ethanol extract of mulberry fruits on the expression of the hair cycle-associated genes of cultured human keratinocytes to explore its potential as a hair-nourishment ingredient. Two types of cultured human cells were utilized: human epidermal keratinocytes (HEKs) and HaCaT cells (a cell line of keratinocyte). Cells were treated with mulberry extracts and its effects were evaluated in terms of growth capacity and the expression of 12 known hair cycle-associated genes. Mulberry extracts significantly stimulated the growth of HEKs and HaCaT cells. Among the 12 tested genes of HaCaT cells, the expression of noggin gene (NOG) was increased most prominently by the extract. The up-regulated expression of NOG induced by the extract was also observed in HEKs. In contrast, the expression of bone morphogenetic protein 4 gene (BMP4) and p27^Kip1 gene, both genes associated with noggin signaling, was down-regulated in HaCaT cells by the extract, strongly suggesting that the extract may have stimulated keratinocyte growth through the suppressive effects of noggin on BMP-p27^Kip1 signaling. Furthermore, HaCaT cells were exposed to oxidative stress using t-butylhydroperoxide or UV and then treated with the extract in order to determine whether the extract mitigates oxidative stress-induced alterations. HaCaT cells significantly decreased the NOG expression when exposed to oxidative stress. The extract was able to recover the oxidative stress-induced suppression of NOG. These results suggest that mulberry extracts mitigate oxidative stress-induced damage in cells. Therefore the results in this study suggest the potential of the mulberry extracts as an ingredient in hair-nourishment products.

Daily fluctuations of many vascular functions are reported, and therapeutic strategy which are based on the daily fluctuation pattern are proposed. In this study, we focused on the daily fluctuation of the skin vascular function relating genes using human epidermal keratinocytes (HEK) and human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) synchronized by dexamethasone treatment. Fluctuation pattern was examined by comparing the expression time course of PER1 and ARNTL those are the core genes of clock feedback loop and circadian rhythm marker genes. Extensive analysis using DNA micro array predicted the daily fluctuation of ANGPT1, VEGFA, and VEGFC gene expression level. ANGPT1; angiogenic factor gene expression time course of four-h periodicity, for two days in HDF, was similar to the PER1 fluctuation pattern. We also evaluated the effects of cosmetic substances on the expression level of ANGPT1. Nuphar japonicum extract showed positive effects on the ANGPT1 expression. An accelerator of ANGPT1 expression, Nuphar japonicum extract, is expected to benefit for improve the skin vascular function at the optimum timing as ANGPT1 high expression level in a day.

Hair and scalp tend to get dirty. Excess sebum may result in dandruff, itching and unpleasant odors and causing reduced QOL. Not only healthy people, but also cutaneous diseases patients such as atopic dermatitis need to shampoo. However, shampooing itself causes irritation in their skin and disease progression. Recently excessive shampooing becomes subjects of discussion. Therefore a low-stimuli shampoo with adequate cleansing ability is desired. In this paper, we report the development of the prototype shampoo by adequately formulating mild anion, amphoteric and nonion surfactants. Consequently, it was shown the prototype shampoo possessed rich foaming ability and low skin-irritation-index. The treatment auxiliary effects were observed in more than 90% of the subjects in the clinical trial, while 9% of the subjects felt worsening on their scalp. These results suggested the prototype shampoo was suitable for the maintenance of healthy scalp, even for cutaneous disease patients.

This article introduces a series of color illusions. The first one is the “vein color illusion.” It refers to the phenomenon that subcutaneous veins appear to be bluish though they are physically not. A new color contrast illusion and the color constancy illusion are suggested to underpin the vein color illusion.

It is shown in this paper what the nature of color is and how color vison mechanism is realized in the human visual system. Color is not a physical attribute of light, but a human sensation as described by Newton for the first time. Human color vision mechanism has evolved to utilize spectral information of reflected lights from objects in order to detect, discriminate, segregate and identify objects. Three cones, L, M, S with different spectral sensitivities receive lights, and then produce responses depending on their spectral sensitivities. A cone does not discriminate wavelengths of light because of the principle of univariance. The cone-opponent stage in the retina to the LGN consists of the parvocellular, magnocellular and koniocellular paths made from L, M and S cones. They have L-M or M-L, L+M and S-(L+M) responses with center surround receptive fields. Interestingly L-M or M-L responses in the parvocellular path are reorganized in visual cortex to produce chromatic and luminance channels. In the higher order mechanism in the cortex it is likely that multi-color channels exist in V1 and a categorical color mechanism exists somewhere beyond V1.

The sunlight is essential for all living things on the Earth. In addition, the light has been applied in every technology, science, and art. Therefore, light is a fundamental technology supporting modern human society. In this paper, the fundamental characteristics of light and recent solar light environment are discussed. The light is one of the electromagnetic waves, and consists of ultraviolet radiation, visible radiation and infrared radiation, which wavelength band is from 1 nm to 1 mm. The ultraviolet radiation is more active on the chemistry than visible/infrared radiation. A based on the long-term ground observation on the solar radiation at Hiratsuka, Japan, it is clearly shown that, the solar ultraviolet-B irradiance is affected by the amount of ozone in the atmosphere but also by weather and air pollution. Since 2001 the total amount of ozone shows recovery trend as +0.207%/year. According to the basic relationship between solar ultraviolet-B irradiance and ozone, it has become clear that solar ultraviolet-B irradiance should be decreasing. However, the solar ultraviolet-B irradiance shows increasing trend as +0.538%/year. It is considered that this increasing trend of solar ultraviolet-B irradiance was affected by ozone, weather, air pollution, and solar activity. Moreover, the global warming been attracting attention in the world. Ozone is one of the greenhouse gas. This fact clearly shows we cannot separate on the ozone depression and global warming as a difference problems. These problems should be handled with as one serious global environmental problem, and monitoring and evaluation have been required.

When our skin is exposed to the solar light, perceptible skin reactions are induced by ultraviolet A ray (UVA) and ultraviolet B ray (UVB). UVB causes erythema after several hours followed by pigmentation called delayed tanning after a few days. On the other hand, the skin exposed to UVA exhibits grayish brown colored pigmentation immediately after UVA exposure without causing erythema. The pigmentation persists more than several hours and the color gradually changes to brown. This persistent pigmentation is called persistent pigment darkening (PPD) reaction. To indicate the UV protection level of sunscreen, SPF and PA labeling are used. SPF stands for “Sun Protection Factor” and PA stands for “Protection Grade of UVA.” The number of SPF means the number of times longer that you will be protected from getting erythema, which is mainly induced by UVB, with sunscreen than you will be without sunscreen. PA grade is determined based on the protection level of PPD reaction induced by UVA. In the case of PA labeling, the degree of protection is labeled as PA+, PA++, PA+++ or PA++++ on a sunscreen product. The more plus (+) mark means the more protection level against UVA. The current test methods related to UV protection are harmonized globally. Global standard ISO24444 is adopted as Japanese standard test method for SPF measurement and ISO24442 is adopted as Japanese standard test method for UVA protection measurement.