›› 2013, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (9): 187-194.

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Signal Regulation for Melanoblast Cytopoiesis Process:A Review

YANG Chun-ling, HAO Tian-tian, LI Qiang-fei, CHEN Ting, MAO Hua-ming, DENG Wei-dong   

  1. Faculty of Animal Science and Technology, Yunnan Agricultural University, Kunming 650201, China
  • Received:2013-01-05 Online:2013-09-20 Published:2013-09-18

Abstract: Melanocytes synthetise melanin which determine skin and coat color for animals. There are two generate ways about melanoma cells throughout the body. One way is through the retinal pigment epithelial cells which are divided from medullary epithelium cells. The other way is through melanoblasts, in the early embryonic development, neural crest cells differentiate into melanoblast firstly, these cells continue to develop into mature melanocytes. After reviewing on the development of mouse and human genetics, we had proved that it was a complex process of melanin derived from neural crest cells. The development and differentiation of melanocytes were regulated by multiple signaling factors. Among the rest there were some transcription factors SOX10, MITF and PAX3, and three signaling pathways, KIT and KITL, WNT/β-catenin, EDN3 and EDNRB. The MITF was considered as the most important regulatory factor during the development of melanocytes.Three pathways were also considered closing to the development of melanocytes and regulating the function and activity of MITF. This article summarized the research progress on the development of melanocytes and indicated that early developmental regulation of neural crest cells might be the fundamental reason which caused the formation of hyper-pigmentation traits in silky fowl and Black-boned sheep.

Key words: melanocytes; neural crest; signal pathway

CLC Number: