Regulatory effect of hydroquinone-tetraethylene glycol conjugates on zebrafish pigmentation

We synthesized two hydroquinone-tetraethylene glycol conjugates (HQ-TGs) and investigated their logP, photophysical stability, and redox chemical stability. HQ-TGs are a little more hydrophilic than hydroquinone (HQ) and show an enhanced photophysical and redox chemical stability compared with HQ. In addition we studied the effect of HQ-TGs on cell viability and on zebrafish pigmentation. MTT assay in HF-16 cells showed HQ-TGs are less cytotoxic than HQ. The phenotype-based image analysis of zebrafish larvae suggests that HQ-TGs suppress the pigmentation of zebrafish in a dose-dependent manner. The comparative experiments on stability, cytotoxicity, and zebrafish pigmentation between HQ and HQ-TGs suggest that mono tetraethylene glycol-functionalization of HQ is an alternative solution to overcome the adverse effect of HQ.