Effect of novel cyclohexane diester and benzene diester derivatives on melanogenesis

In order to investigate potent whitening agents, we synthesized 15 cyclohexane diester derivatives and 15 benzene diester derivatives. To evaluate their structure-cytotoxicity relationships, we performed cell cytotoxicity tests on B16F10 mouse melanoma cells. To understand their whitening effects, melanin synthesis inhibitory activities in B16F10 cells and mushroom tyrosinase inhibitory activities were performed. In most cases, cell cytotoxicity was observed to be lower in 1,3-diester than in 1,2- and 1,4-diesters; when it came to the structural isomer of the side chain, all derivatives except the 1,2-cyclohexane diester derivatives showed lower cell cytotoxicity in the branch type of the side chain than in the linear type. Among the compounds evaluated, the compounds cyclohexane-1,3-diyl bis(decanoate), cyclohexane-1,4-diyl dioctanoate, and 1,3-phenylene bis (2-ethylhexanoate) emerged as potent melanin synthesis inhibitors. Our goal was to determine the expression levels of proteins involved in melanogenesis, Western blotting and RT-PCR showing that these compounds decreased tyrosinase, TRP-1, and TRP-2 while demonstrating significantly low cytotoxicity.