The occurrence of zinc-induced synthesis of metallothionein in skin after topical application of the anti-acne drug Zineryt lotion was investigated in hamster ears. The dinitrophenyl hapten-sandwich immunohistochemical method involving a monoclonal anti-metallothionein (MT) antibody (E9) was used to detect and localize zinc-binding MT in the 'treated' and untreated hamster skin. Atomic absorption spectrophotometry and dithizone histochemistry indicated that zinc penetrated the skin more readily, and accumulated more efficiently within the sebaceous glands, when applied to the skin surface as the organo-zinc complex, rather than as the inorganic zinc salt. MT and zinc had similar distributions in hamster skin exposed to the metal. Thus, MT immunoreactivity was especially intense in the sebaceous glands of Zineryt lotion-treated skin, with evidence of nuclear distribution in some cells. Zinc delivered to the sebaceous glands, and released from the organo-complex under the prevailing aqueous conditions, certainly induced MT synthesis; the cysteine-rich protein may protect the pilosebaceous units during the inflammatory phase of acne by scavenging generated oxyradical species.
The sites and hormonal control of lipogenesis in hamster ear sebaceous glands are reported. Sebaceous lipogenesis was determined in ear biopsies by incubation with glucose and tracer concentrations of 14C-acetate in buffer. The 14C-labeled lipids were saponified, extracted, and determined by liquid scintillation counting. Histologically, the ears contained many sebaceous glands. The glands of male animals were much larger and more heavily lipid-stained than glands from females. Lipogenesis was almost entirely confined to the sebaceous glands in the dermal stroma. Lipogenesis was considerably higher in ear biopsies from male hamsters than from female, castrate male, or hypophysectomized male hamsters. In contrast to published data using hypophysectomized rats, where dihydrotestosterone potently and testosterone only weakly increased sebum secretion, both testosterone and dihydrotestosterone potently increased lipogenesis in the ears of hypophysectomized male hamsters. Dihydrotestosterone was somewhat more potent than testosterone in the hamster. Hypophyseal hormones do not appear to be essential for androgen stimulated lipogenesis in the hamster. In female hamsters, 5 alpha-androstane-3 alpha, 17 beta-diol, testosterone, dihydrotestosterone, 4-androstene-3,17-dione, and 5 alpha-androstane-3,17-dione produced dose-dependent increases in lipogenesis. From this and other studies, it is suggested that androgens other than dihydrotestosterone could be physiologically important in man and animals in stimulating lipogenesis in sebaceous glands.
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